100 Proceedings of the 



9. C. picipeSj Fab. 



Hydrophilus picipes, Fab. Syst. El. i. 251. 10. 

 Ptomaphagus picipes, Illig. Kaf. Pr. 893. 

 Catops striatus, Duft. Fn. Aust. iii. 74. 3. 



blapsoides, Germ. Ins. Sp. Nov. 84. 142 ? 



picipes, Erichs. Kaf. d. M. Br. i. 236. 5; Sturm, Deutschl. Faun. xiv. 



17. 7- t. 274. f. c. C ; Heer, Fn. Helv. i. 378. 5 ; Redt. Fn. Aust. 144. 



10; Kraatz, Stett. Ent. Zeit. xiii. 428. 9; Fairm. & Laboulb. Fn. Ent. 



Franc, i. 300. 4. 



Ovatus, convexus, niger ; antennis subfiliformibus 

 pedibusque piceis, apice testaceis; tborace 

 transverso, basi sublatiore, angiitis posticis 

 obtusis ; elytris apice profunde striatis. 



Long. 2| lin. 



Tbis is tbe largest species of the genus, with 

 the exception of tbe last. Oval, convex, black. 

 Antenna? scarcely tbickened at tbe end, reddisb 

 brown at tbe base, blackish at the extremity, 

 excepting the last joint, which is light yellow. 

 Head very densely and finely punctate, mouth reddish. The 

 thorax is likewise very densely and finely punctate, with a fine 

 silky pubescence, black, strongly rounded on the sides, narrowed 

 both in front and behind, but most in front, posterior angles obtuse, 

 posterior margin very slightly sinuated on each side, the greatest 

 breadth behind the middle. Elytra oval, very convex, black, with 

 a slight grey hoar-frost bloom upon them, very densely punc- 

 tate, with stria? faint in front, deeper behind. Under side black, 

 abdomen and legs brown, tibia? ferruginous brown, tarsi pale 

 ferruginous. 



The only species with which there is any risk of this being 

 confounded is C. nigricans, Spence. Its large size removes it from 

 all but it and C. meridionalis, Aube, and C. chrysomeloides, Spence. 

 Independent of other distinctions, its colour at once distinguishes 

 it from meridionalis, which is ferruginous, while this is black. 

 It likewise wants the projecting posterior angles of the thorax. 

 Its subfiliform antenna? distinguish it from C. chrysomeloides, 

 which has the heaviest and thickest clubbed antenna? in the 

 genus ; and there only remains C. nigricans, to which it is much 

 more allied. Both have subfiliform antenna?, pale at the base 

 and apex, and the proportionate length of the joints of the 

 antenna? is much the same; they are both black, with ferru- 

 ginous legs ; and I have specimens of nigricans very little infe- 

 rior in size to picipes, but picipes is a broader and more robust- 

 looking insect. It has the elytra much more convex and bellied 

 out, and its thorax is differently shaped, being more contracted 



