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Show 570 INSECTA. Sometimes the ninth and tenth joints of the antennre, the length of which, at most, is equal to that of the head and thorax, are hardly larger than the preceding ones; the eleYenth or last is alone much thicker, nearly spherical, and with an acicular point at the end. BITHYNus, Leach. Where the second joint of the antennce is much thicker than the first, and dilated on the inner side in the manner of a tooth(l). AReOPAGus, Leach. Where, on the contrary, the second joint of the antennre is much more slender than the first, and where the latter is even sometimes dilated(2). There the maxillary palpi are shorter than the head and thorax taken together; the fourth joint at least is short or but slightly elongated, and ovoid or triangular. CTENISTEs, Reich. These Insects are very distinct from all others of the same family, in the three last joints of their maxillary palpi, on the outer side of which we observe a point or tooth with a terminal seta; the second is very long, arcuated, and inflated and rounded at the end; the two following ones are almost globular. The last joint of the antennce is much larger than the preceding ones, and somewhat oval. The thorax forms an elongated and truncated cone(3). BRYAXIs, Leach.-Euplectus, Tychus, Ejusd. / Where no such characters are presented by the maxillary palpi; their last joint is elongated and conical ot· securiform. The thorax is short, hardly longer than wide, and rounded( 4). In the last of the Pselaphii we observe this peculiarity-their an· tennce consist of but six joints, or even one. They form the genus CLAVIGER, CLAVIGER propet·, Where the antennce consist of six distinct joints. ( 1) P1. securiger, ejusd. See Leach, Zool. Miscell., III, page 80, 82, 83. (2) Ps. glabricollis, Reich .; ejusd., Ps. clavicornis; Leach, lb., 80, 83, 84. (3) Reich., Monog., p. 75, et seq. (4) See Leach, Zool. Misc. The form of the last joint of the maxillary palpit aR well as the relative proportions of those of the antenna:, may offer good ch11.· racters for division, but they do not appear to me of sufficient importance to designate generic sections. See the article Pselaphiens of the Encyclopedie Me· thodique. COLEOPTERA. 571 These Insec.ts have .no. apparent eyes. The maxillary palpi are very short, Without d1stmct articulations, and with two tet·minal hooks. The two first joints of the tarsi are very short· the third and last is very l~~g, with a single hook at the <·xtt·emity: These Pselapha are found under stones in barren localities and even in the hills of certain small yellow Ants. An excellent Monograph of this genus has been published by M. Muller, in the third volume of the Magasin der Entom. of M. Germar(l). ARTIOERus, Dalm. Where the antennce appear to be composed of a single joint, forming a cylindrical and elongated club, truncated at the extremity. The eyes are distinct and the tarsi are terminated by two hooks(2). The tarsi of the Dermestes atomarius of De Geer having appeared toM. Leclerc de Laval to be composed of but one joint, with this Insect and some others we formerly established a new division of the Coleoptera, that of the MoNOMERA, which has been adopted by M. Fischer in his Entomographia Imperii Russici, and who, with this Insect, has formed a new genus which he names Clambus. But it appears-Gyllenh., Insect. Suec. IV, p. 292, 293-that M. Schuppel, who of all our entomologists has accustomed himself the most to minute and delicate observations, has made the same section under the name of Ptilium. M. Gyllenhall had united the species with the Scaphidia, and, in fact, we think that the proper situation of this new genus will be found in the vicinity of the latter. (1) See also Gyll., Insect. Suec., IV, p. 240. (2) .O.rticeru_& armatus, Dalm., Insects in Copal, p. 21, tab. v, f. 12. According to this figure, the tarsi are provided with two hooks. |
