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Show 344 INSECTA. CEROPHYTUM, Lat., Is removed from the others by the tarsi, of which the four first joints are short and triangular, and the penultim.ate is ~ifid. The antcnnre of the males arc ramous on the mner s1dc, the base of the third joint and of the following ones being extended into a widened branch rounded at the extremity; those of the females are serrated( 1 ). In all the other subgenera the joints of the tat•si are almost cyJin. drical and entire. Sometimes the head is plunged into the thorax up to the eyes; the anterior extremity of the pr::esternum projects under the head, and its margin is arcuated. In some, the labrum and mandibles are concealed by the anterior extremity of the prresternum, the clypeus or episterna being widened and laid over it. Such is the CRYPTOSTOMA, Dej.-Elatet, Fab. In which the internal angle of the summit of the third joint of the antennre and of the seven following ones is prolonged into a tooth; the second and fourth joints are shorter, the last is long and narrow, and there is a straight linear branch on the inner side of the third, near its origin. The mandibles are unidentated under the point. The maxillre present but a single lobe, and are small and membranous, as is also the ligula. The palpi are very short. The tarsi are small, thin, and almost setaceous. The only species known, the Elater denticomis, Fab., is found in Cayenne, whence it was sent to the Mus. d'Hist. Nat. of Paris by M. Ban on. NEMATODEs, Lat. First joint of the antennre elongated, and the five following ones forming reversed cones, equal, the first or second of this number excepted, which is somewhat shorter, and the five last thicker and almost perfoliate; terminal joint ovoid. The body is almost linear(2). (1) Lat., Gcner. Crust. et Insect., IV, 375. The Malasia aphondyloidt8, Germ., Faun. Insect. Eur., XI, 5, is closely allied to the female of the species which is the type of the subgenus. The Melaaia picea, Palisot de Beauvois, Insect. d'Afr., et d'Amer., VII, 1, has also some analogy to the Cerophyta. (2) Eunemiafilum, Manner. COLEOPTERA. 345 Now the mandibles and labrum are exposed. Here the antennre of the males have a flabelliform termination. They form the HEMIRHIPus, Lat. Of which all the species are foreign to Europe( 1 ). There, these organs, in the same sex, are longitudinally pectinated. CTENlOERA, Lat.(2) In the following subgenus or ELATER, properly so called, The antennre of the males are simply serrated(3). E. noctilucus,L.; Taupin cucujo, Oliv., Col., II, 2, 31, 11, 14, a. Rather more than an inch long; dusky-brown, with a cinereous down; a convex, yellow, round, shining spot on each side of the thorax near its posterior angles; elytra marked with lines of small punctures. From South America. During the night, the thoracic spots diffuse a very strong light, sufficiently bright to enable one to read the smallest character, particularly if several of the Insects be placed in the same vase. By it also the women of the country pursue their work, and Ladies even use it as an ornament, placing it in their hair during the evening paseo. The Indians fix them to their feet to light them in their nocturnal journeys. Brown pretends that all the internal parts of the Insect are luminous, and that it has the power of suspending, ad libitum, its phosphoric property( 4). The French colonists call it Mouche lumineuse, and the Indians, Cucuyos, Coyouyou, whence the Spanish term Cucujo. An individual of this species, accidentally transported to Paris in some wood, in its larva or pupa state, completed its (1) Elater jlabellicornia, Fab. ;-E. fascicularia, ld., &c. \2) The Elat. pectinicornis, cupreus, lu:ematodes, Fab. ;-the Taupin doub/e.croi:c, Cuv., Regn. Anim. IV, xiv, 3. (3) The anterior extremity of the head is sometimes on a level with the labrum, or on the same horizontal plane; at others it is more elevated, and terminated •u.ddenly; but these differences, frequently imperceptible, cannot be used to estabhsh generic sections-my genus Ludia requires a re-examination. ,(4) AI. de la Cordaire who has examined the living Insect informs me that the prmcipal reservoir of the phosphoric matter is situ11.ted inferiorly near the junction of the thorax with the abdomen. VoL. III.-2 T |
