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Show , .. 360 INSECTA. DAsYTEs, Payk. Fab • ...:_Dermestes, Lin. D. c;;eruleus, Fa b .. i Panz., . Faun. Insect. Ge;m., XCVI, lO. Three lines in length; elongated; gt·een or bluish; glossy and pilose. Very common near Paris on flowers in the fields. D. tres noir, Oliv., Col. II, 21, ii, 28; Dennestes hirtus L ' . Somewhat largct• and less oblong; all black and densely pilose· a much stouter and stt·ongly hooked spine at the base of the an: tel'ioJ· tai-si in one of the two sexes. On thf' Gt·asscs(l). Others, the crotchets of whose tarsi are unidentated, like those of Dasytes, to which they are closely allied, and with which Olivier confounds them, are removed from that subgenus by the an. tennre being shot·ter than the head and thot·ax, and .having the third joint at least doub·.e the length of the second. Their body is less elongated, and is more solid; the head is slightly prolonged and narrowed before, and the thorax semiorbicular and truncated ante· riot'ly. They have a certain degree of resemblance to the Silphre of Linnreus. Such are those which fot·m the ZYGIA, Fab. In which the fourth and following joints of the antennre almost form an elongated, compressed, and serrated club; mostofthejoints transversal; thorax very convex. Z. oblonga, Fab. Found in Spain and Egypt, in the interior of houses. and more particularly, according to Count Deje~n, in granaries. It is also sometimes found in France in the de· partments of the Pyrenees Orientales. A second species has been discovered in Nubia. MELYRis, Fab. In · Melyris, properly so called, the antenn:£ insensibly enlarge, but without forming a club; their joints are less dilated Jaterallyand are almost isometrical. The thorax is less convex(2). In the remaining Melyrides the maxillary pal pi are terminated by a larget· and securiform joint. This character, together with the shortness of the first joint of the tarsi, and some other considera· (1} For the other species, see Fabricius; the Melyres of Olivier, 6-17; Panz., Ind. Entom. P· 143; Lat., Gener. Crust. et Insect. I, p. 264; Germ, Insect. Spec. ~ov. Brazil produces tolerably large ones, some of which form a particular divi· s10n. (2) M. viridis, Fab.; Oliv., Col. IT, 21, i, i;-M abdominalis, Fab.; Oliv., Jb., I, 7; Opatrum g'ranulatum, Fab.; Coqueb., Illust. Icon. Insect., III, xxx, 7. COLEOPTERA. 361 u.o ns, seems to approximate them to the Insects of our next tribe. They form the PELOOuPHORus, Dej., Who arranges them with the tetramerous Coleoptera( I). The fourth tribe of the Malacodermi, that of the CLERII, ~distinguished by the ensemble of the fo11owing characters. Two of their pal pi at least project and are clavate. The mandibles are dentated. The penultimate joint of the tarsi ~bilobate, and the first is very short or but slightly visible in several. The antennre are sometimes nearly filiform and serrated, and at others insensibly enlarged near the extremity. The body is usually cylindrical, the head and thorax narrower than the abdomen, and the eyes emarginated. · Most of these Insects are found on flowers, the remainder on the trunks of old trees or in dry wood. Such of the larvre as are known are carnivorous. This tribe will comprise the genus CLERus, Geoff. The tarsi of some, viewed from above and underneath, distinctly exhibit five joints. The greater part of their antennre is always serrated. Of these, some have the maxillary palpi filiform, or slightly en-larged near the extremity. Cvunnus, Lat. Mandibles long and much crossed, terminating in a simple point, with two teeth on the internal side; four first joints of the antennz cylindrical and elongated; the six following ones formed like the teeth of a saw, and the last oblong; the palpi terminated by an elon· gated joint; that of those attached to the maxillre cylindrical, and the same of the labial pal pi, rather thicker and forming a reversed cone; penultimate joint of the tarsi distinctly bilobate. The head is elongated. (1) Catalogue, &c., Dej., p. 115; Notoxus Rligeri, Schrenb., Synon. Insect.~ I, 2, p.SJ, lV, 7, a. I refer to the same division of Melyrides, a new subgenus wh•ch I will call DIGLOBicE:aus. The an ten nee consist of but ten distinct joints, of which the two last are larger and globular. It ia founded on an Insect sent to me by M. Lefebure de Cerisy. VoL. III.-2 V |
