64 NORTHERN ZOOLOGY. 



DESCRIPTION. 



Body very glossy, black underneath, above bronzed. Head with seven furrows between the 

 eyes, the two lateral ones the deepest ; nose anteriorly wrinkled longitudinally, behind with a pair 

 of transverse punctiform impressions with a minute rather sharp elevation between them ; antenna; 

 short, obscurately rufous at the base : prothorax punctured with the disk transversely smooth ; dorsal 

 channel abbreviated ; basilar impressions single, large : elytra punctured in rows, the interstice 

 between the sutural and the second rows thrice the width of the other interstices : there are nine 

 rows of punctures, the fourth, fifth, and six are also furrowed ; the seventh, eighth, and ninth ter- 

 minate in furrows, which run to the end of the elytrum, the two exterior ones becoming confluent : 

 between the third and fourth rows in the anterior half of the elytrum is a deep punctiform impres- 

 sion, and another very minute one with a central elevation is discoverable between the apex and the 

 little furrow in which the fifth and sixth rows after they become confluent terminate : thighs a little 

 bronzed. 



Family OMOPHRONID^. Omophronidans. 



This family, as far as at present known, consists only of a single genus, which 

 appears separated by a very wide interval from the other insects of the present sec- 

 tion, and makes a near approach to those Hydradephaga, or aquatic predaceous 

 beetles that have no scutellum, as Haliplus and Hydroporus, with which, indeed, 

 Clairville has associated it ; and it agrees with them not only in having no appa- 

 rent scutellum, a character scarcely to be found, that I am aware, in any true Gea- 

 dephagous genus ; 9 but its larva also, as appears from M. Desmaret's description 

 of it, though it wants the suctorious mandibles, exhibits a striking resemblance to 

 that of Dytiscus. In fact, as far as our present knowledge leads us, its cognate 

 forms are all in that tribe, none at present discovered among the terrestrial preda- 

 ceous beetles coming near it. Future discoveries will probably help to fill up the 

 hiatus between them ; at present, however, it must be regarded as nearer to the 

 Hydradephaga than the Geadephaga. I shall therefore consider it as occulant 

 between them. 



9 Mr. W. S. Mac Leay (Annuhs. Javan. i, 23, 41, t. i, /. 4) has described an insect, which he places amongst his Har- 

 palida:, under the name of Anaulacus sericipennis, and which he regards as an anomaly, that has no apparent scutellum, which 

 in this circumstance and in its shape seems to resemble Omophron, but as yet I have not had an opportunity of examining 

 the insect. 



