STAPHYLINID^. 71 



p. 9r>. Mr. Dollman points out that it is very nearly allied to aS'. crassvs^ 

 Staph., from which it may be known by its much smaller size, different 

 sculpture, and darker appearance, the shorter and more cordate thorax, 

 the presence of a fovea near the base of the thorax, and the narrower 

 elytra, the shoulders being much less prominent. The species was first 

 described by Mannerheim from two specimens in a list of twenty-seven 

 species, taken by him in nests of Formica rtrfa, during the summer cf 

 18-12, in Finland. Wasmann gives North Siberia as a locality, and 

 Ganglbauer records it as rarely found with F. rufa in North and Central 

 Europe. More evidence is probably required before it can be con- 

 sidered a regular inhabitant of ants' nests. • 



S. ossium, Steph., var. insularis, Joy (Ent. Mo. Mag. xlii.(2 Ser. 

 xvii.), 5). This variety difiers from the type form in being decidedly 

 smaller, narrower, and more shining ; the elytra especially are narrower 

 in proportion to the thorax, and have the depressions much less marked ; 

 the punctuation of the thorax, elytra, and hind body is not quite s-u 

 thick ; and the femora have the ring of black less developed. L. 3 mm. 



Lundy Island (Joy). It certainly differs considerably from the 

 type, and at first I was inclined to consider it a distinct species. 



BLEDIUS, Mannerheim. 



B. diota, Schiodte, Nat. Tidsskr. 186G, 14G; B. hinnnlus, Er. (?) 

 Gen. Staph. 762. 



Dr. Sharp points out (Ent. Mo. Mag. xlvii. (2 Ser. xxii.), lilll, 

 p. 34) that we have two species in our collections under B. bicornis, 

 Crerm. One of these is the true B. bicornis, but the other is the ^\ diota 

 of Schiodte, which probably is the same as the /i. hinnnlus of Erichson, 

 although there seems some room for doubt on this point. The question 

 is discussed at some length by Dr. Sharp. In the last European catalogues 

 B. diota is placed as a synonym of B. tricornis, Herbst., with which 

 insect it has nothing in common. 



B. diota may be easily separated from B. bicornis by the much paler 

 colour of the elytra, and their more obsolete and sparing punctuation, 

 and also by the form of the elevations on the head of the male. These, 

 when viewed from the side, have in B. bicornis almost the form of short 

 compressed horns ; in B. diota they have a greater extension in the 

 longitudinal axis, so that they appear only as elevated laminje. In the 

 female sex the cephalic lamina? are less elevated, and the distinctions 

 greatly reduced, but in B. bico7'7iis the elevation in front is a little greater 

 and more abrupt ; as, however, the development of the horns in the 

 male is very variable, the best character will be found in the colour and 

 sculpture of the elytra. The two species certainly look very distinct 

 when compared side by side. 



Wells, Norfolk, in abundance (Brewer) ; recorded in the Ent. Mo. 

 Mag. for 18G8, p. 201, as B. bicornis, from Cleethorpes, Lincolnshire 

 (J. Kidson Taylor) ; also taken recently at Wells by Professor Beare, 

 Mr. Donisthorpe, and Dr. Joy. 



