104 
BRITISH BEETLES. 
the front of its thorax. 0. cycmeus is of a beautiful 
cyaneous-blue colour ; it is extremely rare, but a 
few specimens have been taken in Sherwood 
Forest, near Newark-on-Trent, Colchester, and other 
places. 
Two species of this genus, morio and compressus , are 
distinguished by the want of any inner tooth to their 
mandibles, which are simply sickle-shaped. 
The great number of Philonthi, black or brassy 
insects, with the elytra sometimes spotted or suffused 
with red, are divided into sections, characterized by 
the longitudinal row of punctures on each side of the 
middle of the thorax ; those of the first section having 
the disk smooth, aud the others increasing from two 
rows of three punctures each, until the thorax is 
entirely thickly punctured, with the exception of a 
smooth middle line. Some little caution, however, is 
required in separating specimens by this character, as 
there are sometimes irregular punctures, interfering 
with the proper dorsal rows, and often not alike on 
both sides. 
The Xantholinin;e have the prothoracic spiracles as 
in the Staphylinidse ; but their antennas are inserted 
before the base of the mandibles, and are not more 
distant from each other than they are from the eyes. 
The species are mostly very long and narrow, with 
the basal joint of the antennae elongate (whereby the 
antennae become elbowed, as in the Rhyncophora), the 
middle legs rather longer than the others, and the 
elytra uneven and rather lapped over at the suture ; 
the genus Othius, however, has the antennae of the 
usual structure aud the suture straight. 
The members of this family are found in moss, 
