148 Notes on the Species of Stenus 



Sp. 17(11). Ste. ossium, Kirby, MSS. and Collection. 

 j)alustris, Erichs. ? 



We have before us three specimens of Stenus differing more or 

 less, but which agree in having a slight bronze tint, in having the 

 legs more or less pale, with dark knees ; the thorax with a 

 broadish shallow dorsal channel and two depressions behind ; the 

 tarsi elongate, slender, and with the fourth joint strongly bilobed. 

 Two of these agree in having the two basal joints, and the apex 

 of the antennas, black (or nearly so), and the intermediate joints 

 pitchy testaceous. One of these has rather coarse and somewhat 

 scattered punctures on the abdomen ; this we take to be the 5/. 

 suhceneus of Erichson, and it is certainly the St. gonymclas of 

 Kirby. The second of these two differs from gonymelas in 

 having the abdomen very finely and thickly punctured, and the 

 puncturing, both of the thorax and elytra, less coarse. It stands as 

 St. picipes, St. bifoveolatus and St. ossium in Stephens' Collection. 

 In both these insects the femora have the basal half testaceous, 

 and the apical half black ; the tibiae and tarsi pitchy, or pitchy- 

 testaceous. We believe these to be good species, having ex- 

 amined very many specimens ; both are common in England. 



The third insect is the true St. ossium of Kirby's Description, 

 and of his Collection, Whilst St. gonymelas is rather the largest 

 of the three insects under consideration, this is decidedly the 

 smallest, being equal to St. paUipes.* Here the antennae are tes- 

 taceous, with the apex dusky, the basal joint black, and the 

 second joint very slightly tinted with piceous on the upper sur- 

 face ; the tibiae are pale, excepting at the base, and the tarsi are 

 for the most part pale also. Besides these points we can perceive 

 no difference between this insect and that which Stephens calls 

 picipes. Further, it appears to us that the Stenus ossium of 

 Kirby must be the same as the St. palustris of Erichson. We 

 doubt whether St. ossium, and the so-called St. incipes, be distinct, 

 but having seen a single specimen only j)resenting the peculiari- 

 ties of the former, we must leave the question open. 



Sp. 18(12). sulcicollis, Kirby, MSS. 



In Kirby's MSS. there is no full description of this species, all 

 that is given being the short Latin diagnosis, which precedes the 

 description in Mr. Stephens' work, with this exception, that, in the 



* The shorter thorax and elytra and the more coarse sculpturing of these parts, 

 as well as ihe entirely pale legs in palUpes, will prevent the St. ossium being con- 

 founded with it. 



