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Show 466 INSECTA. ·a sl~ield, and antennre tet•minated by a club composed of four or five joints; they are peculiar to the eastern continent and to New Holland. Such are those which form the CossYPHus, Oliv. Fab. Or Cossyphus properly so called, where the almost semicircular thorax presents no anterior emargination, and entirely conceals the head; where the antennre are short, and terminate abruptly in an oval mass of four joints, most of which are transversal; the second of the whole number and the following ones are almost identical. These Insects inhabit the East Indies, southern part of Europe, and north of Africa( l ). In HELJims, Lat. Kirb. The head is received into a deep emargination or median aperture of the thorax, and is exposed at least superiorly. The antennre, at least as long as these two parts of the body taken together, termi· nate almost gt·adually in a narrow, elongated club, formed by the last five joints, the last of which is ovoid, and the preceding ones turbiniform; the second of the whole number is shorter than the third.-They are peculiar to New Holland(2). The others, where the head is always exposed and simply recei,ed into a deep notch in the thorax, have a convex, soft or but slightly solid, almost hemispherical body, and granose antennre, nearly equal throughout. They at·c peculiar to South America, and at a first glance resemble Coccinellce and various species of Erytoli. Such are those which form the NxLio, Lat.(s) FAMILY III. STENEL YTRA. The third family of heteromerous Coleoptera only differs (1) Lat., G~ner. Crust. et Insect., II, p. 4. (2) Cuv. Regn. Anim., Ill, p. 301, IV, xiii, 6;-He/:mu Brownii, K.irb., Lin. Trans., XII, xxiii, 8. (3) Lat., Gener. Crust. et Insect., 11, p. 198, and I, x, 2; .!EgitltuB marginatUI, Fab. See Get·m., Insect. Spec. Nov., p. 162. . The genera Et~strophus and Orchesia which we formerly placed in this family now belong to the next. COLEOPTERA. 467 from the second in the antennre, which are neither granosc nor perfoliate, atld whose extremity, in the greater number, is not thickened. The body is most friquently oblong, and arcuated above, and the legs are elongated as in many other Insects. With the exception of their antennm and size, the males resemble the females. These IIeteromera are usually mu"ch more agile than the preceding ones; several conceal themselves under the bark of old trees, while most of the others are found on leaves and flowers. Most of them were referred by Linnreus to his genus Tenebrio; he distributed the remainder in Necydalis, Chrysomela: Ce1·ambyx and Cantharis. In the first edition of this work, we united these Insects in the single genus HELOPs, but their internal as well as external anatomy proves that we may divide them into five tribes, attached to as many genera, viz. Helops, Cistela, Dircrea, Fab., and the <Edemera and Mycterus of Olivier. With respect to the biliary vessels, which have a crecal insertion, or the posterior ones, we learn from M. Dufour, that this insertion is not effected in the two last genera a·s in the first and other preceding heteromera, by a common trunk, but by three canals, one of which is simple, the second bifid, and the third trifid. In the <Edemerre he found salivary vessels. Their head is more or less narrowed and prolonged anteriorly in the form of a snout, and the penultimate joint of the tarsi is always bilobate; characters which seem to approximate these Insects to the Rynchophora. With respect to the alimentary canal, and several other considerations, Hclops and Ciste]a approach Tenebrio, but the Cistelre have a smooth chyli:fic ventricle, entire mandibles, and usua11y live on flowers or leaves, by which they are distinguished from Helops. Most of the Dircrere have the faculty of leaping, and the penultimate joint of their tarsi, or at least of some, is bifid ; some of them inhabit mushrooms, others old wood. · These Insects are connected on the one hand with the Helopii, and on the other with the ffidemerre, and stiJl more closely with N othus, a subgenus of the same tribe: such are |
