120 COLEOPTERA. 



Madingley Wood, Cambridgeshire, and recently by Mr. 

 Champion, when sifting; dead leaves and cut grass at Shirley, 

 near Croydon (single specimens only being taken in each 

 instance). 



Germar's insect was found in rice, and Dr. Leach (who 

 founded the genus) discovered it in numbers in a box of seeds 

 and fruits received from China, the beetles being more par- 

 ticularly attached to such as contained saccharine matter. 

 Duval states it to be cosmopolitan, and generally found in 

 old rice (it is quite different fiom Stephens' Cerylon oryzcc, 

 mentioned in a former " Annual" as one of the Thorictidce); 

 and Mr. Janson, to whom I am indebted for specimens, has 

 found it in some numbers in an old truss of hay bought for 

 packing purposes in London. 



It is about half a line long, with 10-jointed antennae, of 

 which the basal joint is large and the last forms an abrupt 

 sub-globose club; the tibiae are abruptly acuminate at the 

 tip, the mandibles are not pointed, and the elytra entirely 

 cover the abdomen. Superficially it is somewhat like a 

 Scymnus; and the eye is immediately caught by the rounded 

 excavation at the anterior angles of its thorax, for the recep- 

 tion of its antennae. 



The JSisteridfBj Bijrrhidce^ Erotylid<s, Thorictidce and 

 other families have been strained to include this " little 

 stranger," which seems at home in none of them, though 

 making itself so in any country. Duval founds expressly for 

 its reception a sub-family, Murmidiides, which he places 

 between his Myceteides and Corylophides. 



E. C. Rye. 



10, Lower Park Fields, Putney, S.W. 

 November, 1869. 



