422 Extract from Note Book regarding the Genus Pausms. [No. 138. 



endowed with the faculty of crepitation, attended with the same results 

 observable in many of these, their removal may (I think) well be 

 warranted from the place they now hold to somewhere in the vicinity 

 of Aptinus or Brachinus 



Regarding their form, it may be noticed, that the head is generally 

 narrower than the thorax, or at most of the same width, eyes promi- 

 nent, mostly reniform, sometimes ovaliform or gibbous ; the body when 

 viewed from above appears oblong, with the elytra either of one 

 breadth throughout, or narrowed anteriorly, depressed and truncated 

 posteriorly in most species ; those which have the elytra of a uniform 

 breadth, curved or sub-cylindrical above, present a rounded emargina- 

 tion to the wing cases at their latter extremities. The palpi though 

 small, are salient, the labial ones being subulate ; those of the maxilla- 

 ries appear composed of four joints, of which the first is thicker than 

 the rest ; they differ from the labials in being arched from about mid- 

 way, turning inwards until their apices are so approximated, that they 

 appear to meet. 



The abdomen is oblong, oval and tumid at the posterior extremity, 

 sometimes of one. breadth throughout, but more generally narrowed 

 anteriorly. The femur in each fore-leg presents in many species a 

 longitudinal and rather deep sulcus, which when the leg is contracted 

 admits the tibia. The tarsus is composed of five joints, of which the 

 first, though very minute and nearly concealed beneath the spine of 

 the tibia, is still very distinguishable with a magnifier, particularly 

 when the insect is in motion. The thorax resembles the form which 

 obtains in that part of most of the Carabici, being generally cordiform, 

 truncated posteriorly, with margins produced, though some species 

 have it angulated in front and irregular. 



In flight, the Paussi are exceedingly easy and agile, the lower wing 

 when expanded being in comparison to the size of the insect of large 

 dimensions, and when they alight, the movement is so sudden, and the 

 elytra are closed so instantaneously over the lower wings, that they 

 appear as having dropped down to the spot on which they rest, and 

 where they generally remain several seconds previous to again at- 

 tempting to move ; facts which I have also remarked as practised by 

 many Carabici. Its walk, however, entirely differs from that of this 

 last mentioned genus, for instead of being nimble and occasionally 



