STAPHYLINIOE. 
105 
decaying vegetable matter, sand-pits, &c., — one species, 
Leptacinus formicetorum, occurring in ants’ nests ; 
and tbey are not conspicuous for variety of colour, 
being at most black, slightly relieved by yellow or 
red. 
The species of Xantholinus have a peculiar habit of 
curling (or rather “ doubling ”) themselves up in 
repose, their linear shape and free joints allowing 
numerous angular bends ; their head is very elongate, 
not contracted at the base, with small eyes placed near 
the front, which is deeply furrowed and connected 
with the thorax by a small cylindrical neck, and they 
may generally be separated by the dorsal punctuation 
of the thorax, which varies considerably in amount 
and degree. A variety (with the thorax entirely 
reddish) of the prettiest species, X. tricolor, occurs not 
rarely at the seaside in the south ; and the type-form, 
— which is rufo-testaceous, with the head, base of the 
thorax, and the abdomen pitchy, — has been taken 
under refuse in Scotland, where (and, indeed, all 
over the country, also) Baptolinus alternans, a flat, 
broad-headed, gaily-coloured insect, is found under 
bark. 
Xantholinus fulgidus (Plate IV., Fig. 5), a shining- 
black species, with bright red elytra, lives in hotbeds, 
vegetable refuse, dead wood, &c. 
Nudobius lentus, a somewhat depressed species, with 
bright testaceous-red elytra, is found very rarely in 
Scotland under bark of Scotch fir. 
The PaiDEBiNiE have the prothoracic spiracles hidden, 
and the antennas inserted under the apex of the lateral 
margin of the forehead ; the space behind the anterior 
coxae is membranous, and the posterior coxas are conic. 
