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Show 548 INSECTA. nose, their joints not being much longer than they are wide. The eyes are prominent and cmargina~ed. The posterior extt·emity of the head forms a sort of neck beluncl these latter organs. These Insects live on the Liliacere, ·Aspargi, &c., and like those of the preceding family, make a sli.ght noise .when seized. Their larvre feed on the same plants to which they clmg by means of their six squamous feet. Their body is ~oft, short and inflated; their own freces, with which they covet' the1r back, protect them ft•om the action of the sun and changes of weather. In order that they may accomplish this, their arms a.re placed above. When about to be-come nymphs they enter the g1·ound. ?'he . C. merdigera; Chrysomela merd-tgera, L.; Ohv., Col., VI, 94, i, s, is three lines in length, with the thorax and elytra of a beautiful reel. The thorax is strangulated on each side. The elytra are marked with longitudinal lines of punctul'es. In ali Europe on the white Lily. . M. Boudier, of Versailles, a zealous entomologist, to whom I am indebted for several rare and curious species, has pub· lished in the Memoircs de Ia Societe Linneenne de Paris, some observations on the C. brunnea-Lema brunnea, Fab.,-which is ful vous, with the antennce~ pectus and base of the abdomen black. It is found together with its larva on the Lilium conval· Zaria. C. asparagi; Chrysomela asparagi, L.; Oli v., lb., II, 28. Bluish, with a red thorax, sometimes immaculate, and some· times with a blue and cordiform spot in its middle; the elytra are yellowish, with a blue band along the suture, which, being united with three lateral spots of the same colour, forms a cross. The same plant is devastated by another species-the C. 12· punctata, L.-which is fulvous, with six black spots on each elytron( 1 ). AuoHENIA, Thunb. The Auchenice differ from the Crioceres, with which they were at first confounded, by their entire eyes; by their palpi narrowed a~d terminated in a point, and not obtuse; by the last seven joints ofthetr (1) See Olivier and Fabricius, but without including the leaping species, som.e of which belong to the subgenus Petauristes, and the others to the last one oftbli family, or Megascelis. COLEOPTERA. 549 antennce which are wider; and by their thorax wh1"ch · d'l d • • • ' lS I ate near the middle of each stde Into an angle or tooth(l). Sometimes the mandibles are truucated • the P"lp'1 t · d . ' .. are ermmate by ~ strongly I~flated truncated joint, with a little annular prolon-gation, presentmg th~ appearance of another joint. The antennce are slender, and consist of highly elongated and almost cylindrical joints. MEGASOELrs, Dej. Lat. The eyes are somewhat emarginated. The mandibles are thick. The exterior maxillary lobe is narrow, cylindrical and curved inwat ·ds. The labial palpi are almost as large as those of the maxillre. These Insects, which are peculiar to South America, appear, in some respects, to approach Colapsis, but their general form places them among the Eupoda(2). FAMILY VI. CYCLICA. In our sixth family of the Tetramera, where the three first joints of the tarsi are still spongy, or furnished with pel1ets beneath with the penultimate divided into two lobes, and where the antennre are filiform or somewhat thicker towards the end, we observe a body usually rounded, and in those few where it is oblong, with the base of the thorax of the width of the elytra and maxillre, whose exterior division, by its narrow, almost cylindrical form and darker colour, has the appearance of a palpus; the interior division is broader and destitute of the little squamous nail. The ligula is almost square or oval, entire or widely emarginated. From the various anatomical researches of M. Leon Dufour, it appears that the alimentary canal is at least thrice the length of the body : that the esophagus is most usually inflated behind the crop, and that the chylific ventricle or stomach is commonly smooth, at least throughout a great part of its extent. The biliary apparatus resembles that of the Lon- (1) Crioceris subspinosa, Fab. (2) The Lema vittata, cuprea, nitidula, Fab. |