the species are included in the genus Platysoma, which ought 
to contain only the Hister depressus Marsh., and II. oblongus 
Fab. 
The kindness of my friend the Rev. Wm. Kirby has en- 
abled me to present my readers with a figure and description 
of an unique and nondescript species, found in the head of a 
dead snake at Nacton near Ipswich in 1805 by the Rev. 
Revett Sheppard, in honour of whom it has received its name. 
I am happy in having been able to ascertain satisfactorily 
that it belongs to the genus Dendrophilus , of which it is the 
largest species, and differs in structure from the type only in 
having the hinder tibiae a little more dilated. 
The following arrangement of our British species may per- 
haps be found useful. 
* Body subglobose 
1 D. Sheppardi Kirby . Nob. 
2 Curtisii Leach's MSS . 
3 punctatus Ent. Heft ., Payk . Mon. tab. 7 .f. 5. — piceus 
Marsh. 
4 seminulum Kirby's MSS. 
## Body sublinear 
5 flavicornis Herbst , Payk. t. 8. f. 6. — minutus Panz. 
93. 3. 
6 Milleri Leach's MSS. 
7 picipes Fab., Payk. 8. 5. Sturm , tab. 19. fg . a. Panz. 
43. 6. — pygmaeus Marsh. 
It may be observed that our genus unites Abraeus and Pla- 
tysoma Leach, being separated from the former by the pro- 
duced sternum, and from the latter by the convexity of the 
upper surface of the body. With regard to the trophi, it will 
be seen on comparing our plate with those of Hister in Mac- 
Leay’s Horae Entomological, Sturm’s Deutschland' s Fauna , 
and Paykull’s Monographia Histeroidum, how greatly they 
differ from the usual forms exhibited by the family. 
The local plant figured, Iris foetidissima (Stinking Flag), 
was gathered by my friend Mr. Charles Fox at Darent, Kent. 
