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Show 380 INSECTA •. last joint of the maxillary palpi is as long as the two preceding ones taken together. Au.GYRTI•:s, Fl'CEh .-Mycetopltagus, Fa b. The body tolerably thick, convex, and arcuatecl superiorly, not scutiform; thorax somewhat wider than long, and a little narrower befot·e; exterior margin of the elytra inclined and not canaliculated· last joint of the maxillary palpi thicker and ovoid(!). ' Certain Clavicornes, which seem to approach Argyrtes in their habits and other characters, but whose mandibles are cleft or bidentated at the extremity, will compose our fifth tribe, that of the ScAPIIIDITES. 'I'heir tarsi consist of five very distinct and entire joints. The body is oval, narrow. ed at both ends, arcuated or convex above, and thick in the middle ; the head low, and received posteriorly into a trapezoidal thorax, widest behind, the margin of which is but slightly or not at all recurved. The antennrn are usually at least as long as the head and thorax, and terminated in a quad· riarticulated and elongated club. The last joint of the palpi is conical. The legs are elongated and slender. With the exception of some species-the Cholevre-the tarsi are nearly similar in both sexes. This tribe consists of the genus ScAPHIDIUM. SoAPHIDIUM, Oliv. Fab.--Silpha, Lin. In the true Scaphidia, the five last joints of the antennre are almost globular, and compose the club. The maxillary palpi project but little, and gt·adually taper to a point, the penultimate joint not being thicker than the last at their junction. Th~ body is navicelll· form; the mat·gin of the thorax slightly recurved, and the elytra truncated. They inhabit mushrooms. But few species are known; one from Cayenne and the rPst ft·om the north of Europe(2). (1) .llrgyrteJ castaneus, Gyllen., Insect., Suec. J, iii, p. 682; Mycetophaguu.&· taneus, l~ab.; M spirtipes, Panz, Faun. Insect. Germ., XXIV, 20. I suspectthe .9.. subnigcr, Dej., is merely the female. (2) Oliv., Col., n, 20. [We have atleastone species, the S. 4·guttatum,Knocb, Melsh. Catal., if not anothe1·, the S. 4·pustulatum?, Id. lb. See Say, Journ. of the Acad. of Nat. Sc. of Philad.III, 199. .9.m. Ed.] COLEOPTERA. 381 CHoLEVA, Lat. Spence.-Catops, Fab.-Peltis, Geoff. Most of the joints of the antennal club turbiniform and more or less perfoliaceous; maxillary palpi very salient and abt·uptly subulate; the body ovoid; thorax plane, without a border; the four first joints of the anterior tarsi, and the first of the intet·mediate ·~nes, dilated in the males of some species-Catops blapsoicles, Germ. In the Cholevre properly so called, the antennre are about the length of the head and thorax; their eighth joint, or the second of the club, is evidently shorter than the preceding and following one, and sometimes is even indistinct; the last is semi-ovoidal and pointed(!). · . In the MYL<ECHUS, Lat. Oliv.,-Catops, Payk., Gyll., the antennre are shorter, the eighth joint is larger than the preceding, and almost equal to the following one, the last is rounded and obtuse on the summit(2). The fifth tribe, ~r that of the NITIDULARI1E, approximates to the fourth in the scutiform and bordered body, but the mandibles are bifid or emarginated at the extremity ; the tarsi seem to consist of but four joints, the :first and Jast, in some, being only visible beneath, where they merely form a slight projection, and the penultimate in the remainder being very small, in the form of a knot, enclosed between the lobes of the preceding ones. The antenna} club is always perfoliaceous, consists of three or four joints, and is usually short or but little elongated. The palpi are short and filiform, or somewhat thickest at the extremity. The elytra in several arc short or truncated. The legs are but slightly elongated, and their tibire frequently widened at the end; the tarsi are furnished with hairs or pellets. The habitation of these Insects varies with the species; they are found on flowers, in mushrooms, putrified meat, and under the bark of trees. They form the genus NITIDULA. ~n some, the antenna! club consists of but two joints, and the ante- (1) Lat. Gener. Crust. et Insect., II, p. 26. See the Monograph of this genus, published by M. Spence in the Lin. Trans., and Paykull and Gyllenhal. (2) Lat. lb., p. 30, VIII, ii; Oliv., Encyclop. Method., article Mylrequ.e. |
