60 NORTHERN ZOOLOGY. 



DESCRIPTION. 



Body underneath green, bronzed, very glossy ; above bronzed, gloss much obscured, occasioned 

 by an infinity of most minute reticulations visible only under a good magnifier, which give it a granu- 

 lated appearance ; frontal impressions and ocellated punctures as in Notaphus ; eyes very large and 

 prominent ; palpi bronzed with the second joint obscurely rufous ; antennae longer than the prothorax, 

 with the scape, and the base of the second and third joints, rufous : prothorax short, depressed both 

 at the base and apex, the depressed part being wrinkled longitudinally; dorsal channel and basilar 

 impressions rather deep, in the latter are two little furrows : in the elytra, a little beyond the middle, 

 in the interstice between the second and third furrows, are two quadrangular, oblong, slightly de- 

 pressed spaces of a somewhat golden lustre, and marked at the anterior end with a punctiform 

 impression ; immediately before, between, and after the depressed spaces, is a levigated and rather 

 elevated one of the same shape ; the furrows of the elytra are arranged nearly in the same way as 

 those of Notaphus intermedins above described : the legs are rufous with the thighs bronzed at the 

 apex. 



(c) FlLIPALPIA. 



Family ELAPHRIDiE. Elaphridans. 



XXIX. * Genus OPISTHIUS. 



Oral organs scarcely different from those of Elaphrus. 



Body depressed and flat. Head triangular, antenna much more slender and longer than those of 

 Elaphrus, third joint rather longer than the fourth. Prothorax very short, transverse, scarcely wider 

 than the head; anteriorly obsoletely obtusangular, posteriorly subrepand, depressed a little at base 

 and apex ; channelled, but without basilar impressions ; sides gibbous ; angles all obtuse. Scutellum 

 rather obtusangular. Elytra, alitrunk, 8 and abdomen very much dilated, nearly twice the width of 

 the prothorax, without furrows, with several rows of obsolete mammillated impressions. Legs rather 

 longer and more slender than those of Elaphrus ; the hands of the male have the four first joints 

 a little dilated and furnished underneath with a brush. 



This appears to be one of those transition genera which Mr. W. S. Mac Leay has denominated 

 osculant, and to unite the Hygradephaga filipalpia with the subulipalpia, and more particularly 

 Elaphrus with Bembidium. From the latter it borrows its general aspect, its short prothorax, its 

 dilated elytra, alitrunk and abdomen ; its oral organs, its head, and in some respects its elytra, and 

 its legs are those of the former; its antennae resemble those of Cicindela ; and the hand of the 

 male has four dilated joints furnished with a brush as in the C'arabidce. 



The alitrunk is that part of the trunk which bears the wings and the four posterior legs. 



