the JBritish Species of the Genus Euplectus. 47 



front, and here very nearly equal in width to the head, if we in- 

 clude the prominent eyes ; the surface obscurely and sparingly 

 punctured; the discoidal fovea, and the three posterior foveae, are 

 but moderately large and deep. Elytra, at the broadest part, 

 about twice the width of the thorax, and about equal to the head 

 and thorax in length ; very finely and indistinctly punctured, with 

 the ordinary sutural and central stride, both having their origin at 

 the base of the elytra in a small puncture ; the central stria ex- 

 tends from the base, nearly half-way along the elytron, and be- 

 tween this and the sutural stria is a puncture or minute fovea* 

 at the base of the elytron. Abdomen rather elongate, equal to the 

 elytra in length. 



Male with a small spur at the apex of the middle tibia on the 

 inner side. 



The first point which caught my eye, and led me to separate 

 this species from the E. nanus, with which it agrees most nearly in 

 colouring, was the superior length of the antennae, and their being 

 less stout ; and a minute comparison readily brought to light 

 many other points of distinction. The colour is usually darker 

 (pitchy-black), and its form is more elongate. The head in E. nanus 

 has its sides, immediately behind the eye, parallel, but the pos- 

 terior angle is rounded, whilst in the present insect, which has a 

 larger and more prominent eye, the head is gradually rounded 

 and contracted behind the eye, and. the space behind the 

 eye is shorter : in E. nanus the four foveae on the head are 

 equidistant, whilst here the anterior foveas are distinctly more 

 widely separated than the posterior. The thorax is rather longer, 

 and more contracted behind, and its foveae are less strong. The 

 striae on the elytra are less strongly impressed, more especially at 

 the base. 



My specimens were procured from damp, rotting sticks, in a 

 wood at Hawkhurst, in Kent, at the end of April, 1859. I have 

 seen specimens in other collections. 



In comparing this species with the E. nanus c.i Reichenbach and 

 Aube, I must state that that insect is universally regarded as the 

 E. Reichenhachii of Leach and Denny, and that of this latter I 

 have examined the original type specimen, now in the British 

 Museum, which bears not only Leach's label, but likewise a second 

 label (" nanus") attached by Dr. Schaum. In the same collec- 

 tion is found, likewise, tl^ original specimen of the E. Kirbii of 

 Denny, which is very distinct from the present species, and as these, 



* In E. nanus the corresponding little fovea is confounded in the larger and 

 . deeper depression which foitns the commencement of the central stria. 



