STAPHYLINID^. 75 



long series taken by Mr. de la Garde at Braunton, Devon, the form is 

 less robust, the size a little less, and the legs rather paler. 



B. terebrans, Schiodte, Naturhist. Tidskr. 1866, p. 149. This 

 species is allied to B. 2xdU])efs, but is smaller, with the elytra much 

 shorter, their length compared with that of the thorax being only seven 

 to five ; they are, moreover, less densely but more coarsely punctured, 

 and the antennte and front coxas are clear yellow in colour. 



Harburn, near Carstairs (Dr. Sharp) ; borders of the Truim, about 

 two miles above Newtonmore (Mr. Bishop and Miss A. Sharp). Dr. Joy 

 has found it at Birkdale, Southport, and Mr. Donisthorpe in some 

 numbers at Chiddingfold, Surrey, in 1898. The insect agrees entirely 

 with the examples of B. terebrans, Schiodte, in the Copenhagen Museum. 



B. denticoUis, Fauvel, Bull. Soc. Linn. Norm., 2 Ser. vi. 1870, 44. 

 Veiy closely allied to B. opacics, from which it may be distinguished by 

 the right-angled, projecting, tooth-like posterior angles of the thorax ; 

 colour, black or pitchy, with the elytra pitchy-brown, or brown or more 

 or less reddish (as in B. fevioralis), base of antennse and legs reddish ; 

 head narrower than the thorax, finely shagreened and dull ; thorax 

 scarcely narrower than the elytra, about as long as broad, very slightly 

 rounded at the sides, narrowed behind, finely shagreened and dull, with 

 shallow large punctures, and with a fine, but distinct, central furrow ; 

 elytra longer than the thorax, moderately shiny, rather strongly and 

 closely punctured, with fine and sparing pubescence ; hind body shining, 

 very finely sculptured, with scattered punctures ; seventh ventral seg- 

 ment in the male slightly emarginate on each side, somewhat more 

 strongly produced in the middle in the female. L. 4-4^ mm. 



Nethy Bridge, Inverness-shire, Scotland (Bishop and Sharp) ; it 

 appears to be found rarely on the Continent, in Central Europe and 

 Finland, and also in the Caucasus and Siberia. 



The species is also allied to B. femoralis, Gyll., but is broader and 

 more robust, and difiers in the shape of the thorax and the sculpture of 

 the thorax and elytra. 



Dr. Sharp kindly gave me a specimen of this insect, which he had 

 determined as B. denticoUis, some months before the description was 

 published by Mr. Fryer in the Ent. Mo. Mag. 1909, p. 6. 



The following Table may help towards the determination of these 

 difficult species. For the greater part of it I am indebted to Dr. Joy. 

 It may be substituted for the corresponding portion of the Table of 

 Bledius already given in vol. ii., p. 364. 



a*. Elytra black or pitchy black* ; punctuation 

 of thorax fine, 

 at. Mandibles slender ; first joint of antennae 

 (except extreme apex) and palpi fuscous ; 



* The elytra are variable in B. dent'i colli -t , in the specimens I have seen they 

 are pitchy or pitchy-black, but they may be brown or reddish-brown with blackish 

 interspaces. 



