Mr. Kirby has given the characters of this genus in the 12th 
volume of the Linn oe an Transactions, where he has most sa- 
tisfactorily proved that Bolboceras ought to be separated from 
Geotrupes; this was in 1817 ; and I am not aware that the 
genus had been previously described , although the name of 
Odontaeus has been given to it upon the Continent. 
1. B. mobilicornis Oliv. — Curtis Brit . Ent.pl . 259. male , var. 
This curious insect is considered rare in Britain, but it has 
occasionally been taken in great abundance. I well remember 
several years since, as my friend Mr. Joseph Sparshall w T as, 
one evening in June, crossing Mousehold Heath, a few miles 
from Norwich, that he took considerable numbers that were 
flying across the road, most of them being of a testaceous co- 
lour ; I once took a dark female flying in the same county. 
Mr. Wm. Skrimshire captured a pair on the wing at Wis- 
bech, between 9 and 10 o’clock at night, in the beginning of 
July; and during that month, specimens have been found in 
dung at Darent in Kent. 
2. B. quadridens Oliv. 9 Fab.Ent . Syst. v. 1. pars 1. p. 15. n. 42. 
Pa7iz. 12. 1. 
Twice as large as B. mobilicornis ; ferruginous, head in the 
male with a short immoveable tooth on the crown ; the thorax 
with four obtuse teeth, forming a transverse line near to the 
anterior margin ; the female having only an elevated line, and 
another on the head. 
In the Transactions of the Entomological Society (p. 316) 
is the following memorandum, by Mr. Wm. Skrimshire: “Of 
this species, which I believe is quite new to Britain, I found 
a pair, male and female”; this was in the early part of the 
summer of 1807, on the marshes between Peterborough and 
Wisbech, during a flood. 
The plant is Lotus corniculatus (Common Bird’s-foot Clover). 
