286 On Aquatic Carnivorous Coleoptera or Dytiscide. 
ras =—GenuseQWEROVATTHATOS: 
Mesosternum not much exposed between the prothorax and metasternum: 
ventral sutures ordinary : size less than 4 m.m. 
Only one species is known ; it has occasionally been found in some numbers in 
the New World. 
91. Vatellus lentus, Wehncke Stet. Zeit. 1876, p. 857.—Oblongo-ovalis, subtiliter 
sed evidenter pubescens, fortiter punctatus, subnitidus, rufescens, capite, thorace, 
pedibus antennisque rufo-testaceis, elytris plus minusve nigricantibus ; capite parvo, 
oculis magnis; prothorace transverso, elytris angustiore, lateribus subsinuatis, 
fortiter punctato; elytris crebrius fortiter punctatis ; coxis posterioribus fortiter 
punctatis ; tarsis anterioribus elongatis, gracilibus, unguiculis minutis. Long. 3%, 
lat. 2 m.m. 
In the male, the two basal joints of the front and middle tarsi are a good deal 
dilated, so that the third joint appears very slender in comparison to them; in the 
female the three basal joints are all very slender and very compressed laterally. 
The species varies a little, more especially in the colour of the elytra, which are 
sometimes black, and vary between that colour and obseure reddish. 
South America, and the Antilles ; Santa Rita, August, 1850, Sahlberg; Santa Cruz, 10 to 17, 10, 
1872, Van Volxem ; Porto Rico fide Wehncke. 444. 
II. 5.—Group Laccornint. 
Scutellum quite concealed ; front and middle tarsi conspicuously five-jointed ; 
posterior tarsi with the hind margins of their joints lobed externally ; prosternal 
process acute behind; wings of metasternum very slender, arcuate ; size of the 
individual small. 
Only two genera are included in the Laccophilini, and one of these (Neptosternus) 
has yet but a single species, while the other (Laccophilus) has very numerous 
species. They may be very readily distinguished. 
Prosternal process simply acuminate ; hind angles of thorax i LACCOPHILUS, 
rectangular or obtuse. (vide p. 287). 
Prosternal process acutely tridentate ; hind angles of ea NEPTOSTERNUS, 
elongate, acute. (vide p. 317). 
