NEW BRITISH SPECIES, ETC., IN 1868. 11 



the wider thorax, brassy colour and more deeply impressed 

 though less closely punctured striae of viduusy remarks that 

 in that species the elytra have the shoulders less prominent, 

 so that they are on a level with the commencement of the 

 sutural stria, and that there are only seven or eight setse on 

 the inner side of the posterior tibiae ; whilst in moestus the 

 shoulders are more acutely prominent, with their highest 

 point above the commencement of the sutural stria, and the 

 setse are nine or ten in number. He notes, also, that he has 

 never found any transition between the two insects with 

 respect to colour. 



A. emarginatus, recorded as British by Stephens and 

 Dawson, is deep black, with the elytra elevated at the 

 shoulders, so that their entire base appears emarginate. 

 Thomson appears so certain about the specific value of this 

 insect that neither in his 1st vol. nor in his Supplement does 

 he give any particular or differential characters for it. 

 Whilst entirely agreeing with him in considering viduus 

 and mcestus as distinct, I cannot help thinking that there is 

 no foundation for specifically separating einarginatus from 

 the latter, as an abnormal elevation of the shoulders is 

 common in very many species oi Anchomenus and others of 

 the Geodephagq (vide Schaum, Ins. Deutschl., i, 421). 

 For the same reason, I do not think any value can be 

 attached to his above-mentioned character of greater or less 

 elevation of shoulder to the elytra, as regards viduus and 

 moestus. 



Whether Thomson be right in this instance or not, it is 

 scarcely possible to avoid admiring the possession by him ot 

 so strong a belief in "splits" simultaneously with an equally 

 strong synthetical disposition, — the latter evinced by his 

 giving (vol. ix, p. 24) Sembidium csneum as specifically 

 identical with B. higuttatuiiij from which it differs in its 



