SCAPHIDIDiE. SCAPHISOMA. 3 



rufo-maculated elytra; exclusively of its greater bulk, and other 

 comparative characters : — it devours agarics and fungi. 



Sp. 1. 4 — maculatum. Nigrum, nitidum, elytris scepissime maculis quatuor 



rufis. Long. corp. 2 — 2\ lin.) 

 Sc. 4. maculatum. Olivier. Steph. Catal. p. 71. No. 773. 



Glossy-black; thorax somewhat coarctate on each side behind, with a transverse 

 series of large impressed dots behind, its disc thickly punctate : elytra coarsely 

 punctured, with a single sutural stria, continued at the base past the scu- 

 tellum to the shoulders ; on each two large red spots, the one at the shoulder 

 curved, the other towards the apex and rounded : legs black ; tibia? striated : 

 tarsi rufo-piceous. 



|8. Entirely black. 



Not common near London, but more plentiful in the west of 

 England ; near Bristol it has occurred in considerable abundance ; 

 I have occasionally found a specimen or two at Coombe-wood in 

 June. " Clingre, Glosters." — Rev. F. W. Hope. " Not uncommon 

 (near Swansea) on a fungous-like excrescence, which spreads itself 

 under the bark of decaying oaks." — L. W. Dillwyn, Esq. 



Genus CXVII. — Scaphisoma*, Leach. 



Palpi filiform. Antennce pilose, the two basal joints robust, the rest very 

 slender, with a slight club composed of five somewhat oval joints, the second 

 smaller than the rest : head produced and narrowed anteriorly: thorax with 

 its hinder margin produced into an angle in the middle : scutellum not visible. 

 body robust, acuminated at each extremity: elytra truncate: legs very slender; 

 tibiae simple. 



Scaphisoma is distinguished from Scaphidium by the apparent 

 absence of a scutellum, and by having the hinder margin of the 

 thorax produced into a lobe in place thereof; by the pilose antennae, 

 the club of which is composed of slender, somewhat oval joints, 

 the second of which is smallest, and by the minute size of the 

 insects, which feed upon fungi : — from the following genera of the 

 family, the truncate elytra and boat-shaped form readily distinguish 

 them. 



Sp. 1. Agaricinum. Nigrum, nitidum, Iwvissimum, antennis elytrorum apice 

 pedibusque pallido-brunneis. (Long. corp. f — g lin.) 



* I am unacquainted with the Scaphiosoma minuta, Curt.; it is probably a 

 brachelytrous insect allied to Cypha. 



