16 NORTHERN ZOOLOGY. 



DESCRIPTION. 



Body underneath black, glossy ; above the black has a brassy tint, with somewhat of the lustre 

 of silk : head, between the eyes, marked with a short, anteriorly forked furrow ; prothorax sub- 

 trapezoidal, anteriorly subemarginate, sides oblique with the margin reflexed, transversely very 

 minutely wrinkled, with a pair of anterior excavations in the disk, posteriorly also somewhat impressed 

 on each side : elytra longer than the head and prothorax together, slightly furrowed with impunc- 

 tured furrows, obsoletely clouded ; there is a series of about five shallow impressions near the 

 suture. 



Family BRACHINIDiE. Brachinidans. 



V. Genus BRACHINUS. Web. 



(12) 1. Brachinus cyanipennis. 7 (Say.) Blue-winged Bombardier. 



Brachinus cyanipennis. Say. Journ. Ill, i, 443. 

 Length of tbe body 5 lines. 



Several specimens of this insect were taken in the Journey from New York to 

 Cumberland-house, and in Lat. 54° ; Mr. Nuttall took it near the Missouri ; and 

 Mr. Say in great numbers near Engineer Cantonment, where they were found 

 hybernating in the fissures of a stone-quarry ; it was taken also in Canada by Dr. 

 Bigsby. 



DESCRIPTION. 



This species is very closely allied to B. crepitans, common in England and all Europe, but the 

 second and third, as well as the other joints of the antenna? are red : the principal distinction, how- 

 ever, is in the shape of the prothorax, which is shorter, anteriorly more dilated, and the posterior 

 angles are more prominent : it is scarcely half the size of its compatriot B. fumans, and differs from 

 that, and all other Brachini that I have examined, in having the thin white membrane that termi- 

 nates the elytra, especially at their internal angle, much longer and more conspicuous ; this mem- 

 brane, which is a continuation of the hypoderma or lining of the elytra, is but just discoverable in 

 B. crepitans ; the extreme base of these organs is testaceous : the underside of the abdomen is 

 rufo-piceous. In other characters this insect agrees with the species last named. 



7 As many species have blue elytra this name is not sufficiently distinctive. 



