HAnPALID-^i. — HARPALUS. 141 



choice upon their owns pecies ? For it is a fact, which has been fre- 

 quently observed by others, as well as by myself, that if a quantity 

 of carabideous insects of different kinds be confined together, the 

 more powerful species will first attack those of other genera, then 

 such as are congenerous, and finally, when compelled, their own 

 species. 



I Sp. 2. obesus. Crassus, piceus, suprh, niger, antennis, pedihusque piceo-casta- 



neis, thoracis angulis posticis obtusis. (Long. corp. 7^ lin.) 

 Za. obesus. Latreille. — Curtis, iv. pi. 188. — Steph. Catal. p. 29. No. 24,7. 



Smooth shining black : thorax with the margins seneous ; with a slight dorsal 

 channel^ and a punctured fovea on each side near the base^ the hinder angles 

 rounded : elytra tinged with aeneous, striated, the striae obsoletely punctate, 

 the abbreviated one near the scutellum very short, and the margin with a 

 series of deep impressions : beneath pitchy ; antennae, legs, and mandibles of 

 a chesnut hue. Female more obscure. 



Two specimens taken by Dr. Leach, in Devonshire. 



Genus LVII. — Harpalus, Latreille. 



Palpi, external maxilla^'y and labial, with the terminal joint fusiform truncate, 

 and of equal length with the preceding, which is clavate ; internal maxillary 

 nearly filiform : labrum subquadrate, slightly emarginate : mandibles short, 

 not very acute, with the inner edge irregularly sinuated towards the base : 

 maxilloB acute : menfum deeply notched, with an obtuse simple lobe in the 

 centre. ^??^e7iHa?, with the two basal joints alone naked: head o\a,te: thorax 

 transverse, more or less subquadrate; the hinder angles sometimes acute, 

 sometimes rounded, the disc usually impunctate : elytra more or less sinuated 

 at the tip: the second stria abbreviated: wings two, ample: anterior and 

 intermediate tarsi of the males with three dilated joints. 



A genus of variable external form, though the species may be at 

 once known from all the other Harpalidse but Ophonus, by the 

 obtuse simple lobe in the centre of the mentum, united with the 

 abbreviation of the second stria on the elytra, and the pubescence 

 of all but the two basal joints of the antennse : from Ophonus they 

 diJBFer by having the disc of the thorax impunctate, the mentum 

 more deeply notched, and the terminal joint of the maxillary palpi 

 less robust ; scarcely stouter than the preceding. The males are 

 further distinguished from all the foregoing genera by having the 

 four anterior tarsi with dilated joints; and the females are generally 

 obscure above. 



From the great diversity of form, and the extent of the genus, 

 Mandibulata, Vol. I. SOtii June, 1828. t 



