HAIlPALlDiE. PLATYDERUS. 101 



Readily distinguished from the preceding, with which it has 

 hitherto been confounded, by its ample wings, and by which cha- 

 racter it manifestly disagrees with the Fabrician description of 

 C. fuscus; from the following it differs by having the posterior 

 angles of the thorax acute, and by its superior size. Not uncommon 

 in the lane leading into Darenth-wood, from the Dartford lane : — 

 it appears local, but has been occasionally found in Norfolk and 

 Suifolk. 



Sp. 8. mollis. Nigro-picens, antennis pedibusque rufo-testaceis, tho acis laterihus 



rufis, angulis posticis obtusis. (Long. corp. 3 — 4 lin.) 

 Car. mollis. Marsham. — Cal. mollis. Steph. Catal. p. 21. JVo. 161. 



Head smooth, glossy, pitchy-black, with an obsolete impression between the 

 eyes : mouth, palpi, and antennae rufous : thorax slightly convex, the posterior 

 angles obtuse, glossy, black, with the lateral margins, and sometimes the 

 basal, ferruginous : elytra a little convex, pitchy-black, delicately striated, 

 the striae impunctate, with two or more impressed dots on the third from the 

 suture, and a continuous series on the margin : body beneath pitchy-black ; 

 legs reddish testaceous. 



Var. /S. Pitchy-red ; with the antennae and legs testaceous. 



Distinguished from the last by its smaller size, and by the obtuseness of the 

 posterior angles of the thorax. 



This insect, which is the C. littoralis of Dr. Leach's MSS., is 

 found not uncommonly on the southern and eastern coasts of Bri- 

 tain, especially near Southend; I have taken it on the shores of 

 the Thames, at Gravesend ; and Marsham says, " found in gardens, 

 Ealing." 



Genus XXXIX. — Platyderus * mihi. 



Palpi moderate, with the terminal joint ovate-cylindric, truncate, somewhat 

 attenuated towards the tip : labrmri quadrate, emarginate anteriorly : man- 

 dibles acute, slightly bent, denticulated at the base, with a tooth on the 

 internal edge : mentuvi with a bifid lobe in the centre of its notch. Antenna; 

 fihforra, with the terminal joint longest, elongate- ovate : the second shortest : 

 head suborbicular : thorax anteriorly emarginate, somewhat quadrate, attenu- 

 ated posteriorly, with the hinder angles rounded ; ehjtra depressed, entire : 

 wings none: claws simple: anterior tarsi of the males with three dilated 

 joints. 



The trophi of this and the five following genera are so extremely 

 similar, that the species have, till recently, been considered as con- 



* nxaTur, latus ; A£j», coUum. 

 Mandibulata, Vol. I. 1st April, 1828. 



