44 MANDIBULATA. COLEOPTERA. 



joints elongate, nearly cylindric : ^Aora.r heart-shaped: Aea^ unarmed : body 

 depressed : anterior tibiw not palmate. 



This genus stands in the foreign collection at the British Museum 

 as Distomus of Dr. Leach, who appears to have separated it from 

 Ditomus of Bonelli, though its characters have not yet been laid 

 down. I have therefore endeavoured to supply them ; but as the 

 examination of the specimens in the Museum is necessarily confined 

 to an external view, I fear that I may not have seized upon all the 

 characters which distinguish this from the congenerous groups of 

 Ditomus and Aristus, — from the former of which it may readily be 

 known, by the absence of the tubercles, or horns, on the head and 

 jaws, in both sexes, — and from the latter by the more depressed 

 form and smaller head and thorax. 



Sp. 1. Leachii. Plate III. f. 4. Piceo-niger, punctatlssivius, 

 elytris saturatioribus, antennis pedibusque j'ljfo-picds, tliorace 

 lined longitudinali obsoletd impressd. (Long. corp. 5 lin.) 



Di. Leachii. Samonelle, MSS. — Stepli. Catal. No. 56. 



Allied tOj if not the same as, Dit. fulvipes of De Jean— at least from his descrip- 

 tion ; — it is pitchy-black, vel-y much punctate, the thorax rufo-piceous, with 

 an obsolete longitucUnal impressed line : the elytra are striated, the interstices 

 deeply and thickly punctated : the legs and antennae are totally pitchy-red. 



The only specimen I have seen of this species was taken by Dr. 

 Leach about three years since, on the borders of Dartmoor, in De- 

 vonshire ; it is now in the British Museum. 



Family IV.— CARABID^, Mac-Lea^. 



Elytra entire, covering the abdomen : the anterior tibife not eraarginateil. 

 Antenn(B'\xaea.r, or setaceous: lahrnm trilobate, or bilobate, sometimes simple: 

 mandibles simple, or unidentate, rarely tridentate : maxiUic ciliated internally, 

 with a claw at the tip ; labiuin generally with a tooth on its upper margin : 

 labial palpi with four joints: mentiim large, broad, generally produced in the 

 centre: anterior tarsi greatly dilated in the males. 



The Carabidse are generally large and showy insects, and are 

 usually adorned with splendid colours ; they are mostly apterous ; 

 when irritated they have the property of ejecting a highly acrid and 

 volatile fluid ; the species found in Britain may be subdivided into 

 eight genera, thus cursorily discriminated : — 



