548 Entomological Papers. [No. 6. 



the following group. This is the largest species I have hitherto 

 met with. The system of coloration is the usual one : more or less 

 deep brown, legs and antennas lighter, tarsi and palpi quite so. Eyes 

 middling. Antennas with a 3-jointed club, the joints subglobose, 

 flat on the base, the last large, conic, joints 6-8 are slightly truncat- 

 ed at the apex, 7 and 8 being at the same time strongly compressed 

 have a sub-perfoliated appearance. The mandibles are furnished 

 with a bifid tooth. The 3rd joint of the maxill. palpi is of the shape 

 of an inverted cone, the 4th minute and truncated at the apex. 

 The thorax is of an obovate form, about £ longer than broad, round- 

 ed off before and gradually narrowed below the middle, subquadratie 

 at the base impressed with 4 foveas or pits, the posterior angles 

 rounded off. Scutellum minute. Elytra with 2 short humeral 

 costas, separately rounded off at the apex. Legs stout ; 2 posterior 

 coxas distant ; tibias slightly bent at the base, subcylindric at the 

 apex, the 4 anterior ones hairy ; tarsi with joints 1-4 gradually de- 

 creasing in size, the anterior ones dilated, the joints transversely- 

 triangular, the intermediate pair hairy on the inside. Mesosternum 

 of the preceding. Metasternum with a slight longitudinal depression 

 down the middle. Penultimate abdominal segment grooved on the 

 back as in S. alatus. In the enlargement of the anterior tarsi lies 

 undoubtedly as in other beetles a sexual distinction, as it is not 

 equally strong in all individuals. I may mention here that upon 

 some of the individuals I found ticks (some g. allied to Ixodes but 

 not a G-amasus) fastened, one of them having made a wound such 

 as, supposing it to be inflicted at a corresponding place and on a 

 proportionate scale, few animals of a higher order, I think, would 

 have survived — still this little beetle appeared perfectly at its ease. 

 The parasite alluded to had fastened itself right in the centre of the 

 forehead and the wound it had inflicted in this, one should imagine 

 most dangerous place, was a deep hole or pit with a callous border. 

 The latter led me to infer that the injury was an old one, and the 

 tick being at the time fastened in it (and this so firmly that I had 

 some difficulty in detaching it) I felt sure it had been in this posi- 

 tion for months. The injury was observable under a slight magni- 

 fier, and to compare it to one inflicted by a rifle-ball would I think 

 be greatly underrating its importance. 



