8650 



Insects. 



capture at the time, and looked carefully for more, 1 did not succeed 

 in taking any other specimen. 



P. affine belongs to that section of the genus which is distinguished 

 by the three impressed lines on the disk of the thorax, and may be 

 known from its allies by the lateral lines appearing at first sight 

 parallel for their whole length to the central channel, but when closely 

 examined each line shows a faint curve at each end in contrary 

 directions ; it is also much more convex, and larger than any other of 

 the same section, except P. caesum, Er. 



It appears to be extremely rare on the Continent. 



Omalium nigrum (Grav. Mon. 212, 17) is closely allied to O. florale; 

 it differs from that species in having longer antennae, of which the first 

 five joints are red and the remainder black ; the thorax is also smaller 

 and of a different form. 



Taken in Oxfordshire. 



,0. brevicorne (Erichson, Gen. et Sp. Staph, ii. p. 884). This is an 

 elongate-depressed species, allied to O. planum. The shortness of its 

 antennae will at once serve to point it out without detailing other 

 characters. 



O. testaceum (Erichson, I. c, p. 885) is also one of the narrow spe- 

 cies, and somewhat resembles O. concinnum, but is shorter than that 

 insect, with the thorax much smaller and narrower, and is always of a 

 paler colour. 



Three specimens of this and one of the foregoing species were found 

 by myself at different times during last summer, in rotten wood near 

 this place. 



The insect which I am about to describe under the name of Oma- 

 lium crassicorne was taken by my brother, the Rev. H. Matthews, near 

 Waddington, in Lincolnshire, about the year 1850 ; and as I have 

 been unable to determine it by the descriptions contained in Erichson, 

 Gyllenhal, or any other work to which I have had access, the species 

 is probably unknown. 



Omalium crassicorne, n. s. 

 L. c. If lin. Rufo-castaneum, aeneum, nitidum, antennis pedibus- 

 que laete rufis. 



Caput piceo-nigrum, distincte sed remote punctatum, inter anten- 

 nas elevatum, glabrum, nitidum deinde fovea transversa, rugosa, 

 curvata profunde impressum, fronte prominula, fovea parva, 

 utrinque ante ocellos, oculis magnis, valde prominentibus. 



Pronotum paulum longitudine latius, capite latius atque longius, 



