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Show 424 INSECTA. terior extremity of the abdomen most commonly ends in a point or stylet, at least in the males. or those species in which the antenna! club is composed of leaflets in the males, and of six in the females we will mention seven M.fullo; Scarabreusfullo, L.; Oliv., Col. I, 5, iii, 28. About an inch and a half long; brown or blackish; three lines 0 h h . . n t e t orax., two white ovoid spots on the scutellum ' and sever al other .Irregular ones on the elytra. The antenna! club of the male IS very large. Found near the sea coast on the Dow M. vul~aris; S. melolontlw, L:; Oliv., lb., I, 1, a-dn(;), Black; hatry; the antennre, anterwr .m argin of the ept'st oma, elytra and greater part of the feet reddtsh-bay; thorax somewh dilated and marked with an impression near the middle of i~: lateral edges, sometimes black, and sometimes red; four ele· vatedlines on the elytra, whose outer margin is the colour o( the ground; triangular white spots on the sides of the abdo. men; the anal stylet tapering insensibly to a point. M.ltippocastani, Fab.; Oliv., lb., I, s, a, b, c. This Insect formerly confounded with the vulgaris, is rather smaller, shorte; and more convex; the elytra are margined with black, and the anal stylet is proportionably shorter and contracted before' the extremity which thus appears broad and obtuse. The alimentary canal of the Melolontha vulgaris, according to M. Leon Dufour-Ann. des Sc. Nat., III, p. 234-is not so long as ~hat of Copris, but its parict.es are shorter. The chylific ventricle ~s wholly destitute of papill~, and exhibits beautiful fringes on lts surface, which are formed by hepatic vessels. The small in· testine is followed by a species of colour furnished with internal valvulre under the form of small, triangular, and imbricated pouches, arranged in six longitudinal series, separated by as many muscul~r cords. M. Dufour has frequently found these pouches filled. wtth a green, vegetable pulp. The structure of the bilia1·y vessels IS extremely delicate; they form multiplex flexures, and seve· ral of them, right and left, arc furnished with little fringe-like fila· ments. The copulating armature of the male is extremely thick, very hard, terminated by two stout hooks, and presents an articulation (1) yvhile this work was in press, that of M. Straus on the anatomy of thdf. vulgarza .was presented to the Acad. Hoy ale des Sciences, at whose expense it was published. We sincerely regt·et that we had not time to profit by this ex· celle.nt work. M. Leon l)ufour had already made us acquainted with everything relative t~ the system of digestion and the organs of generation. M. Chabt·ier had also desct·1bed and figured with great exactness the muscles of the wings and the thorax. .M. Straus has completely supplied all other deficiencies. COLl~OPTEH.A. 425 ear its posterior third, which facilitates its motion. Each testis is nan agglomeration o f s1· x. or b't cu~ar, and as if umbilicated, spermatic capsules, each one furntshed with a separate, tubular duct, resembling the kind of leaf designated by botanists as peltate or umbili-cated. These Insects occasionally appear in such numbers that they speedily destroy t~e. le~ves .of consider·able tracts of fot·est. The lame are not less mJunous m our gardens. It is commonly called the Ver blanc. M. villosa, Oliv., lb. I, 4. Distinguished from the preceding species by the club of its antenn~, which consists of five leaflets in the males, and four in the females; body brown, more or less dark, sometimes reddish above; three grey lines on the thorax formed by down; scutellum and under part of thE' body furnished with a similar down. which forms spots on the sides of the abdomen( 1 ). Now the antenna! club in both sexes never presents more than three leaflets. The RHISOTROGus, Lat. Closely resembles Melolontha in the general form of the body, that ofthe labrum and tarsi; but the antenn~, which consist of nine ot· ten joints, have but three leaflets in the club(2). In CERASPis, Lepel. and Serv. There are two small longitudinal incisures in the middle of the posterior margin of the thorax, the space comprised bet ween them forming a tooth, the extremity of which is received into a corresponding emargination in the scutellum. The antenn~ are composed often joints. All the hooks of the tarsi, with the exception of the anterior, are unequal; the strongest of the intermedial'ies is entire in the male; the others, and the si~ in the females, are bifid. The body is covered with little scales. (1) Add M. hololeuca, Fisch., Entom. Russ. Imp., II, xxviii, 3;-.M. .llnketeri, Ejusd., 4;-M. pilosa, Fab.; Fisch., lb., 9;-.M. occidentalia, Fab., &c. See Sch~tnh., Synon. Insect. I, 3, p. 162. (2) As it is not always an easy matter to ascertain exactly the number of joints that immediately precede the club of the antenme, I unite the genus I had named Jmphimalla, where those organs consist of but nine joints, to Rhi~otrogus. The M. MJhtitialis, pini, serrata, fervida, atra, requinoctialu, rt£jicorni8, &c., of Fabricius. The third joint llppears to be decomposed. v OL. III.-3 D |
