238 Mr. H. W. Bates on the Geodephagous 



base broadly sinuated. The elytra are elliptical-ovate, obliquely 

 and strongly sinuate near the tip, with the suture produced ; 

 the lateral margins are somewhat explanated and reflexed, the 

 stride sharply impressed, the interstices scarcely convex. 

 Apparently abundant near Christchurch. 



Dicrochile aterrima^ n. sp. 



Z>. oblonga, nigra, nitida ; capite majore ; thorace breviore, trans- 

 verso, quadrate, postice paulo angustato, angulis posticis obtusis, 

 apice rotundatis, margine vix reflexo ; elytris oblongis, nitidis, 

 fortiter punctulato-striatis, interstitiis alternis magis elevatis. 

 Long. 5 lin. 



Same size as Z). siibopaca, but distinguished at once by its 

 deeper black colour and shining sm-face, by its larger head 

 (owing chiefly to the much more prominent eyes), and much 

 shorter, more transverse thorax. The palpi and tarsi are also 

 shining black. The elytra are much less sinuate truncate, 

 and the sutural apex less produced ; the stria3 are punctulate, 

 and the interstices more convex, especially the third, fifth, and 

 seventh. 



Taken by Mr. C. M. Wakefield in some numbers at Lake 

 Coleridge, under stones in a dry lagoon. 



DicrocMleovicolUsj Motschulsky, Bull. Mosc. 1864, iv. p. 316. 



By its elytra " paulo opacis," this may possibly be our D. 

 suhopaca ; but the description of the thorax cannot possibly be 

 intended for that species ("capite fere duplo latiore, ovali "). 

 There is not the faintest approach to the oval form in the thorax 

 of D. suhopaca. 



Ohs. Dicrochile Fabrei and D.anchomeno'ides, cited by au- 

 thors as described by Gu^rin (Ann. Soc. Ent. Fr. 1846, 

 Bull. p. 103), must be erased from the list of this genus, as 

 the species" are merely named in the place quoted, not 

 described. 



Subfamily Ancsomunin^. 

 Calathics zeelandicus^ Redtenb. Reise No vara, Col. p. 17. 



Auckland. 



It is doubtful if this belongs really to the genus Calathus. 

 C. rubroviarginatus, Blanch., from the Auckland Islands, is 

 decidedly not a Calathus^ having, according to Chaudoir, 

 four joints of the male anterior tarsi dilated and brush-like 

 beneath. 



