STAPH YLINID^. §,7 



CERCYON, Leach. 



C. littoralis, Gyll. Ins. Snec. i. Ill, var. binotatum, Steph., 

 111. Bv. ii. 137. Johnson and Halbert., List of the Beetles of Ireland, 

 1902, 615. This variety is very marked, the elytra being yellow, with 

 a black spot on the posterior thii'd close to the suture. It occurs in 

 many Irish localities: Coasts of Donegal, Sligo (abundant). Mayo 

 (Achill), Galway and Meath (Laytown). Stephens records it from 

 Barham, SufTolk, and South Creak, Norfolk. Not uncommon in the 

 li^le of Wight, Ventnor, Bembridge, &c. (Donisthorpe). 



C. bifenestratus, Kust., Kaf. Eur. 56, 14 (1848) ; ( = C. palustris. 

 Thorns. V. A. 1853, 55). This species was introduced as British by 

 Mr. E. A. Newbery (Ent. Record xi. 265) on specimens taken by himself 

 " in the broad ditch near Sandown Castle, Deal," in July 1896. It is so 

 nearly allied in appearance to C. 7narintis, Thorns, (which name must be 

 substituted for the C. aquaticus of our collections) that it has probably 

 for this reason escaped notice as Bi^itish. Bedel (Faun. Col. du. Bass, 

 de la Seine, i. p, 338) separates it as follows : 



Mesosternum narrow. Body more oval. Apical spot of the elytra 

 more reduced inwardly, but mounting laterally up to near the 

 shoulders. — marmus. Thorns, {aquaticus, Brit. Colls.). 



Mesosternum oval; Body more thick-set. Apical spot larger 

 inwardly, but only mounting externally vip to the level of the 

 metasternum. — bifenestratus, Kust. [palustris, Thoms.). 



Thomson in describing C. marimis {I.e. p. 54) speaks of the 

 mesosternum as " lanceolate-linear," and contrasts with it C. jxdtcstris 

 { = bifenestratus) as having the mesosternum broader and oval ; such 

 being the case Kiiwert (Fauna Baltica, 1890, p. 112) seems quite 

 justified in placing it in another sub-genus, Ejncercyon, which might 

 perhaps be given generic rank, as the characters of the mesosternum 

 are the most important in this group. Those of Cercyon, Megastermim, 

 and Cryptojileuriim will be found figured in the last plate of vol. i. of 

 the larger edition of my British Coleoptera, Colour differences are 

 usually worth very little consideration in the genus Cercyon except in 

 two or three well-marked species. 



STAPHYLINID^. 



ALEOCHARA, Gravenhorst. 

 A. (Polychara) discipennis, Muls. et Rey. Opusc. Ent. ii. 

 1853, 61. Shining black, elytra red with a common black sutural 

 stripe and blackish sides, legs brown with reddish tarsi ; head finely 

 and diffusely punctured ; antennse only moderately thickened, the fifth 

 and following joints hardly increasing in breadth, slightly broader than 

 long, and the penultimate joint at most one and a half times as broad as 

 long ; thorax transverse, strongly rounded at the sides, a little more 



