On Thanasimus vufipes, Brahm., Beetle new to British Fauna. 61 
bands or fascize of white pubescence. In rufipes, the basal red portion extends 
much farther down the elytra, and in the type form the basal transverse 
white band crosses this red portion of the elytra—in fact it divides the red 
portion from the black portion. It was this striking difference in the 
colour pattern of the elytra, and the smaller size, which caught my eye 
when the two specimens were together in the net on 15th July. 
There is a var. of rufipes—femoralis, Zett.—in which the white bands 
are arranged as in formicarius. 
The Nethy Bridge specimens have the antenne and legs in part black, 
and they are, therefore, apparently the var. austriacus, Reitt. 
The life-histories of most of the European species of the family Cleride, 
to which the genus Zhanasimus belongs, are fairly well known. 
The larvee of the various species of Trichodes, tor example, are parasitic 
upon the domestic and certain wild bees, and are exceedingly destructive ; 
on the other hand the larvee of the species of Thanasvmus, and several 
other of the allied genera, render most useful service to man, as they are 
the deadly foes of many of the insects injurious to forest trees. 
The larva of formicarius has been described by Erichson, Perris, 
Ratzeburg, and others, and its life-history is well known. I have found 
this larva (or possibly the larva of rufipes) under the bark of Scots fir at 
Nethy Bridge. The full-grown larva is elongate, somewhat thickened 
towards the hinder third; it consists of 12 segments, and in colour it is 
dark pink with the head and prothorax pitchy, and two pitchy spots on 
the meso- and meta-thorax. The head is almost as broad as the prothorax, 
horny, with a forked sutural line in the centre; there are 5 ocelli, and the 
antenne are short and two-jointed. The prothorax and the dark spots on 
the meso- and meta-thorax are horny, and there are two small roundish 
horny plates on the last segment, which end in a pair of hooks directed 
outwards. The legs are moderately long, three-jointed, terminated by a 
simple claw, and are bright brown in colour. 
The larve are full grown in late summer or early autumn, when they 
pupate, and the imago usually remains in its cell till the following spring, 
but may emerge at once. The imago is found both in late summer and in 
early sprig, more commonly at the later period, running on fir tree trunks 
on sawn timber, or on faggots and boughs of felled trees; it is exceedingly 
active and wary and difficult to capture ; it does not, however, fly. 
It is an exceedingly rapacious insect, feeding on Scolytide and other 
allied beetles; it holds its prey by means of its front legs, and, biting the 
prey in the softer integuments between head and thorax, sucks the juices 
of the captive. If two specimens are placed together in a collecting bottle 
