126 MANDIBULATA. — COLEOPTERA. 



Black: liead smooth, impunctate: thorax anteriorly nan-owj posteriorly as broad 

 as the elytra, a little shining, smooth, obsoletely channelled in the middle, and 

 destitute of foveae : elytra oval, slightly glossy, striated, the strife obsoletely 

 punctate, with two minute impressions between the second and third from the 

 suture, and a series on the margin : body beneath thicldy punctate on the sides : 

 legs black : tarsi piceous. 



Not very common, sometimes taken in Battersea-fields and 

 Hackney-marshes; also near Whittlesea Mere, daring tlie spring. 

 " In plenty at Abbots' Ann, Hants, and Amesbury, Wilts." — Rev, 

 G. T. Miidd. 



Genus LIIL— Amara, BonellL 



Paljoi) external maxillary, and labial with the two last joints equal, the terminal 

 oval, truncate, the third clavate : lahi-wn quadrate, slightly emarginate : man- 

 dihles short, denticulated at the base : menlum emarginate, the emargination 

 with a bifid lobe. Antennce linear, the three first and base of the fourth joints 

 naked, the latter not much shorter than the third : head ovate : thorax broad, 

 anteriorly narrowed, posteriorly as broad as the elytra, the hinder angles 

 straight : body depressed : elytra slightly emarginate at the tip, second stria 

 abbreviated: wings &rcn^\e: antei-ior tarsi of males with three dilated joints. 



Of all the genera of Adephagous insects none is perhaps more 

 difficult to be understood than this, the species being so extremely 

 similar in their general aspect, and all being subject to considerable 

 variety in colour*. They may be distinguished by their short, de- 

 pressed, broad body, to which the base of the thorax is closely ap- 

 plied throughout its v/idtli, which equals that of the elytra ; com- 

 bined with the bifid lobe in the notch of the mentum, and the ovate 

 terminal joint of the labial and external maxillary palpi. They 



* Being necessarily compelled to proceed in one undeviating course, by de- 

 scribing each group in accordance with its apparent affinity (whether circum- 

 stances have permitted me thoroughly to investigate it, or not),- 1 do not presume 

 to assert that all the indigenous species will be described, or that their location 

 and nomenclature will invariably be correct, in eve7'y genus; nevertheless, by 

 rigidly describing the contents of my own cabinet, aided by the inspection of 

 the principal metropolitan collections, and some trifling personal experience, few 

 insects of any importance are likely to escape notice, though, in such difficult 

 genera as the present, doubtless some may lurk in obscurity without the pos- 

 sibility of detection ; yet should such be discovered sufficiently early, an account 

 thereof will appear in the appendix to the volume in which the genus is de- 

 scribed, and thus each volume will be rendered as perfect as the naiure of the 

 subject admits, to the time of publication. 



