120 
BRITISH BEETLES. 
conic ; the hinder legs widely separated ; the maxil- 
lary palpi long, and the eyes strongly granulated. 
Descriptions and figures of most of our species are to 
be fpund in Denny’s “ Monographia Pselaphidarum et 
Scydmaenidarum Britannia),” 1825, Norwich. 
Of the Clavigerid.® we possess one genus and spe- 
cies, Claviger foveolatus (Plate XVI., Fig. 6), found in 
chalky districts on the south coast and Surrey hills, 
associated with small yellow ants, whose nests are 
formed under large stones. It is very small, entirely 
yellow, shining, eyeless, wingless, sluggish, with short 
stiff antennae, and a deep depression in the middle of 
the abdomen ; the tarsi are three- jointed, the first and 
second joints being very short, and the third long and 
terminated by a single claw; the ants, with which 
these insects live, by caressing the tufts of hair which 
grow on their abdomen, cause the exudation of a fluid ; 
this they swallow greedily, and in return appear to 
support the Clavigers, which seem to have lost the 
natural instinct of feeding themselves. 
The Pselafbim: are often considered as belonging 
to the Brachelytra, apparently for the sole reason of 
their elytra being short. They constitute a very well- 
defined and most interesting group of small species, 
especially distinguished by their abbreviated elytra, 
acute mandibles, prominent granulated eyes, more or 
less abruptly clubbed antennas (of which the last 
joint is very large), elongated and highly-developed 
maxillary palpi, margined abdomen (nearly all of 
which is exposed), clavate femora, obsoletely-spurred 
tibiae, and usually single-clawed tarsi. They are 
shining, hard, light-yellow, brown or red in colour, 
and with a distinct neck to the head. The Pselaphidx 
