106 NORTHERN ZOOLOGY, 



(151) 2. Nitidula Ossium. (Marsham M.S.) Bone-frequenting Nitidula. 



N. fossium) nigra, subpubescens, pedibus ferrugineis, prolhoracis lateribus elytrisque piceis. 



Bone-frequenting Nitidula, black, somewhat downy; legs ferruginous, elytra and sides of the protborax pieeous. 



Nitidula obscura. @. Steph. Cat. i, 79, 832, 8? 

 Length of the body H— If line. 



Several specimens taken in Lat. 65°. 



DESCRIPTION. 



Mr. Stephens regards this as a variety only of the preceding species, but it is smaller, narrower 

 in proportion, the legs and stalk of the antenna? are paler, and the elytra and sides of the prothorax, 

 in the British as well as American specimens, are pieeous. In other respects they agree. 



(152) 3. Nitidula discoidea. (Fabricius.) Discoidal Nitidula. 



Nitidula discoidea. Fab. Syst. Ent. 78, 5. Syst. EleutJi. i, 252, 23. Gyll. Ins. Suec. i, 219, 6. Illig. Kaf. Preuss. i, 



381, 4. Oliv. Ent. ii, 12, 15, 21, t. ii, /. 8. Herbst. Ins. v, 237, 8. t. 53, /. 7. Panz. Fn. Germ, lxxxiii, t. 5. Ross. 



Mant. i. 24, 56. Schneid. Mag. 519, 15. Linn. Syst. Nat. Gmel. iv, 1630, 16. Goeze. Eur. Fn. viii, 297, 5. Marsh. 



Ent. Brit, i, 133, 12. Walck Fn. Paris, i, 110, 15. Lat. N. D. D'H. N. xxiii, 9. Stew. Elem. ii, 40. Sam. Com- 



pend. 51, t. ii, f. 5. Steph. Illustr. Mandib- iii, 34, 6. 

 Nitidula hsemorrhoidalis. Payk. Fn. Suec. i, 352, 7. Var. f3. 

 Ostoma discoidea. Lai. Tyr. Ins. ii, 108, 5. Brahm. Ins. Kal. i, 48, 160. 

 Silpha discoidea. Vill. Ent. i, 87, 41. 



Length of the body 1^ line. 



Many specimens taken in Lat. 65°. 



DESCRIPTION. 



Considerably smaller than the British specimens. Body subdepressed, black, above minutely 

 punctured, subpubescent. Stalk of the antenna?; sides of the prothorax, which has posteriorly a 

 pair of discoidal obsolete impressions, legs and anus, rufous : elvtra with a large anterior discoidal 

 suborbicular pale-rufous spot common to both, in which, in some specimens, is a black dot ; apex of 

 the elytra obscurely variegated with rufous. 



Fabricius, and after him Mr. Marsham, describes the legs of this species as black ; but others 

 have properly denominated them by the term ferruginous and pieeous. In the American specimens 

 they vary in colour from pieeous to pale-rufous. The author first mentioned, both in his Systema 

 Entomologice and Systema Eleutheratorum, has printed the trivial name discoides, but this has 

 generally been regarded as a typographical error. 



