CARABID^E. PTEROSTICHUS. 97 



includes Argutor. Heer again maintains Argutor as a genus, 

 on the ground of some slight variations in the mandibles and 

 palpi, and assigns Poscilus, as well as Abax, Platysma and 

 Omaseus, as subgenera to Pterostichus. Since, however, these 

 distinctions appear to be unsatisfactory, seeing that the charac- 

 ters of some insects assigned to one group blend into those of 

 others which are given to a different group, so as to render it 

 extremely difficult to determine to which they really ought to 

 belong, I have merely inserted the names in brackets, for the 

 convenience of those English entomologists who may possibly 

 be less familiar with the more generally received arrangement. 



(PCECILUS, Bonetti.) 



1 . P. cupreus : alatus, oblongo-ovatus plerumque viridi-vel cu- 

 preo-ceneus, nitidus ; thorace transverse, postice utrinque 

 bistriato ; elytris striato-punctatis punctisque tribus postice 

 impressis ; antennarum articulis duobtis basi rufis. 



Carabus cupreus, Linn. F. S. 801. Fab. S. El. 1. 195. 



Harpalus cupreus, Gyll. Ins. Suec. 2. 114. 



Platysma cuprea, Sturm, D. F. 5. 94. 



Feronia cuprea, Dej. Spec. 3. 207; Icon. 3. 12. pi. 126. 



Pcecilus cupreus , Steph. Mand. 1. 110, et Manual, p. 32. 



Pterostichus cupreus, Erichson, Kafer,67. Heer, Faun. Helv.68. 



Var. b. Platysma versicolor, Sturm, D. F. 5. 99. 



Pcecilus versicolor, Steph. Mand. 1. 110, et Manual, p. 32. 



This species presents various shades of green, brassy green, 

 brassy, coppery, purplish or black, very brilliant and shining. 

 Head thickly and minutely punctured, having a fovea on each 

 side, antenna3 black, with two joints at the base red. Thorax 

 narrowed in front, transverse, sides moderately rounded, broadly 

 margined, posterior angles not quite complete right angles, disk 

 convex in front, depressed on the sides and at the base, the 

 latter punctured, having also two longitudinal fovese on each 

 side, the outer one shortest and close to the angle. Elytra ob- 

 long-ovate, slightly narrowed in front, sides a little rounded, 

 deeply striated, the striae finely punctured, the interstices convex, 

 the third with three distinct impressed punctures behind ; under- 

 side greenish black, thorax, breast and sides of the abdomen in 

 front more or less punctured, legs black. Length 4^-6 lines. 



P. versicolor is a rather smaller and narrower variety of this 

 species, which is extremely common. 



2. P. dimidiatus : alatus, oblongus; capite thoraceque subqua- 

 drato postice utrinque bistriato cupreis ; elytris viridibus, 



