100 NORTHERN ZOOLOGY. 



LI. Genus OICEOPTOMA. Leach, 

 vii. Subgenus Thanatophilus. Leach. 



(141) 1. Oiceoptoma (Thanatophilus) marginale. Marginal O. Thanatophilus. 



O. Thanatophilus marginale. Kirb. 



Silpha marginalis. Fab. Gen. Ins. Mant. 215, 7, 8; Syst. Eleuth. i, 338, 9. Oliv- Ins. ii, 11, 10, 6, t. i, /. 5. Herbst. Ins- 



v, 180, 8. Linn. Syst. Nat. Gmel. iv, 1621, 52. 

 noveboracensis. Forst. Cent. 17. 



Length of the body 6 lines. 



Several specimens taken in Lat. 54°., taken also by Dr. Mac Culloch in Nova 

 Scotia. 



I have retained Fabricius' trivial name for this species, although Dr. Forster's 

 was first published by five years, for two reasons, first because it has been generally 

 adopted, and next because it is a much better name. The name of a district given 

 to an animal being improper, unless it is really peculiar to such district, or more 

 abundant there than elsewhere. Generally speaking the name imposed by the first 

 discoverer and describer, ought to be studiously retained : but where another name 

 has been long in possession, and the one imposed originally is manifestly absurd 

 or improper ; to prevent confusion in the first case it should be retained, and in the 

 second rejected or altered. The rights of individuals should be always maintained, 

 except where they interfere with the general benefit and perfection of the science. 



DESCRIPTION. 



Body oblong, black, very thickly punctured. Head with an oblong punctiform impression in the 

 space between the eyes : the margins of the prothorax, the lateral more widely, are of a pale-red : 

 the whole disk is covered by a large three-lobed black spot, with the lateral lobes the smallest and 

 shortest : the elytra are reddish-brown with three longitudinal ridges, the external one, as usual, 

 stopping short of the apex. In the female the elytra at the apex are subsinuated and subacuminated. 



(142) 2. Oiceoptoma (Thanatophilus) lapponicum. Lapland O. Thanatophilus. 



Oiceoptoma (Thanatophilus) lapponicum. Kirb. 



Silpha lapponica. Herbst. Ins. v, 209, 35, t. lii, / 4. Thunb. Ins. Suec. 5, 72. Fab. Syst. Eleuth. i, 338, 1 1. Gyll. 

 Ins. Suec. i, 273. 12. 



rugosa. Variety. Linn. Fn. Suec. 455. Payk. Fn. Suec. i, 339, 9. 



candata. Say. Journ. Acad. Phil. Ill, i, 192, 1. 



Length of the body 5 — 6^ lines. 



