94 NORTHERN ZOOLOGY. 



the scutellura is black : the elytra punctured, testaceous, and hairy : the abdomen is entirely black ; 

 the legs are testaceous with the posterior coxa? black ; the hands are not dilated. 



I cannot affirm with any confidence that this is the true Staphylinus fulvipes of Gravenhorst, but 

 it answers so well, in almost every particular, to his description, that I do not feel myself justified in 

 giving it as a distinct species. He makes the intermediate dorsal series to consist only of three 

 punctures, whereas in the American species there are five placed in an irregular line and at unequal 

 distances. Some doubt rests upon GyllenhaPs synonym, since he describes the three first joints of 

 the antenna; as testaceous, the sculpture also of the prothorax is different, and he says that the ante- 

 rior tarsus in both sexes is dilated. 



Family STAPHYLINID^. Staphylinidaris. 



XLVII. Genus STAPHYLINUS. Linn. 



(132) 1. * Staphylinus chrysurus. Golden-tail Staphylinus. 



St. (chrysurus) supra cinereo-aneus niyronebulosus • postpectore 9 anoque villoso-aureis, anlennis caule pedibusque, rufis. 

 Golden-fail Staphylinus, above cinereous-bronzed clouded with black ; after-breast and anus brilliant with golden hairs ; 

 stalk of the antennae and legs rufous. 



Length of the body 5i lines. 



Taken in Nova Scotia by Dr. Mac Culloch. 



DESCRIPTION. 



Body underneath black, somewhat glossy, sprinkled with yellow hairs. Head suborbicular, 

 scarcely wider than the prothorax, confluently punctured, bronzed, and covered not thickly with short 

 pale-yellow hairs, which give it a cinereous tint, with several indistinct blackish spots ; rhinarium l 

 and upper-lip pale yellow ; mandibles rufous at the base ; stalk of the antenna; testaceous, the six 

 last joints are brown and larger than the rest, so as to form a clava : prothorax sculptured, cloathed, 

 and coloured like the head, but more distinctly spotted and clouded with black, widest behind with 

 a slight lateral sinus near the base : scutellum almost covered by a heart-shaped velvetty black spot : 

 elytra, as to sculpture, cloathing, and general colour, resembling the head and prothorax, but they are 

 differently spotted with black ; in the centre of the base is an oblique oblong spot, then follows an 

 angular interrupted band, and lastly, is a sickle-shaped band with the handle towards the lateral 

 margin, the blade is very broad and includes an insulated cinereous spot ; neither of these bands 

 reach the suture or the lateral margin, which is tawny-yellow : the two last segments of the abdo- 

 men, especially the penultimate, are thickly covered with short decumbent hairs, which in certain 

 lights reflect a brilliant golden lustre ; the after-breast is covered with hairs if possible still more 

 brilliant : the legs are testaceous, but the thighs except their tip, and a dorsal line, are black. 



This species resembles St. hybridus and maculosus, but is sufficiently distinguished by its golden 

 tail and breast : it is one of the smallest of the genus. 



9 See Introd. to Ent. iii, 381. 4. 573. ] Ibid, iii, 363. A. 480. 



