44 



which is likely to be of service is to divide the family into two groups accord- 

 ing to size, and then to describe separately the genera which fall into each 

 group. 



A. Length 4 lines or more, — Biachromus, Anisodactylus, and Harpalus 

 (part.) 



B. Length under 4 lines. — Lichirotrichus, Harpalus (part), Stenolophus, 

 and Bradycellus, 



DIACHROMUS. 



This genus contains a single British species, B. Germanus, which is very 

 rare, it measures 4 lines in length, and has the head yellowish, the thorax 

 green or blue, the elytra yellow with a blue-black spot on the hinder half, 

 and the legs yellow. 



ANISODACTYLUS. 

 This genus contains two British representatives, viz., A. hinotatus 

 and pceciloides, both of which measure slightly under half-an-inch. 

 A. hinotatus is black, with two red spots between the eyes — a character which 

 distinguishes it from all other British Carabidae. It occurs pretty commonly 

 on muddy shores. A. pceciloides is green, with the posterior angles of the 

 thorax rounded. It may be distinguished from any Harpalus, which genus 

 it closely resembles in general appearance, by its greater breadth, and by 

 having the dilated tarsal joints of the male covered beneath with long hairs. 

 The apical spine of the anterior tibiae also is three-pointed. This species is 

 moderately common. 



DICHIROTBICHUS. 

 The two species of this genus are easily distinguished from Stenolophus 

 and Bradycellus by their size (2J to 3J lines) and by the whole body 

 being thickly punctured and hairy. Both species are of a pale yellow- 

 ochre colour with a dark marking of an oblong form on each elytron, but 

 the commoner species, D, pubescens, is sometimes entirely pitchy brown. 

 In D, obsoletus, which is also the larger species, the striae on the elytra are 

 impunctate, although the interstices are thickly punctured ; whereas in D. 

 pubescens the interstices (and whole upper side) are not so deeply punctured, 

 but the striae are distinctly punctate. Both species are fairly common on 

 sea-shores and in muddy places on the banks of rivers, &c. They may be 

 distinguished from the genus Harpalus, which they much resemble, by the 

 intermediate tarsi of the males not being dilated, while they are distinctly so 

 in Harpalus, 



HARPALUS. 



This genus, the species of which differ so much among themselves, is 

 easily distinguished from Stenolophus and Bradycellus by the greater size of 



