OCR Text |
Show 346 INSECTA. metamorphosis there, and greatly astonished the inhabitants or the faubourg Saint-Antoine by Its, to them, extraol'(linary light. E. ameus, L.; Oliv., Col., lb., viii, 83. Six lines long, bronze green; glossy; elytra striated; legs fulvous. Germany and the North of Europe. E. germanus, L.; Oliv., .lb., .11, 12. Very co~mon in the vicinity of Paris, and only chffermg from the ::eneus m the colour of its feet, which are black. E. cruciatus, Oliv., lb. IV, 40. A pretty European species, with the appearance of the reneus, but smaller; black; two !on. gitudinal red bands on the thorax, neat· the latel'al margin; rlytt·a yellowish-red, with a black line near the antet·ior angles of their base and two bands of the same colour fot·ming a cross on the suture. Rare near Paris. E. castaneus, L.; Oliv., lb. III, 25; v, 51. Black; thorax covered with a reddish down; elytra yellowish with a black ex· tremity; antennre of the male pectinifot·m. Europe. E. 1·uficollis, L.; Oliv., lb., VI, 61, a, l>. Three lines in length, and of a shining black; posterior half of the thorax red. North of Europe. E. ferrugineus, L.; Oliv., lb., III, 35. Ten lines in length; black; the thorax, its posterior margin excepted, and thee)ytra deep blood-red. On the Willow. The lat·gest species in Eu· rope(l). Sometimes the head is free posteriorly, or is not sunk to the eyes, which are protuberant and globular. The antennre are inserted under the edge of a frontal projection, depressed and arcuated ante· riot'ly. The body is long and narrow, or nearly linear. Such are those whic.h form the subgenus CAMPYLus, Fisch .-Exophthalmus, Lat.-Hammionus, Mi.ihfeld(2} Elaterides with filiform palpi and antennre, pectinated from the fourth joint, will compose a last subgenus, that of PHYLLOCERus( 3 ). ( 1) For the remaining species, see Oliv., Ib.; Panz. Faun. Insect. Germ., and his Ind. Entom.; Herbst., Col., and Palisot de lleauvois, Insect. d'Afr. et d'Am6r. The genus of DIM..&. of M. Ziegler, a species of which, called elateroides, has been figured by M. Charpentier in his II ora: Entomol., VI, 8, presents no chnractcr by which I can clearly distinguish it from the pt·eceding one. (2) See Fischer, Entom. Russ., II, p. 153. This subgenus comprises the EWtr linearis, L., of which his mesomelas is a mere variety; the E. borealis, Gyll., and his E. cinctus. (3) Count Dejean having collected but a single specimen, I could not dissect COLEOPTERA. 347 Our second section, or that of the MALACODERMI is divided . to five tribes. In the first, or the CEBRIONITEs, so named ~;om the genus Cebrio of Olivier, on which all the others de-end, the mandibles terminate in a simple or entire point, the ~alpi are of equal thickness or m~re slender at the extremity; the body is rounded and convex m some, oval or oblong, but arcuated above, and inclined anteriorly in others. It is usually soft and fie xi ble; the thorax is transversal, widest at base, and its lateral angles acute, or in several even prolonged into spines. The antennro are generally longer than the head and thorax. , The legs are not contractile. Their habits are unknown. Many of them are found on plants in aquatic localities. They may all be united in one genus, that of CEBRio, Oliv. Fab. Some, which establish a connection between this and the pt·eceding tribe, which al'e even of as firm and solid a consistence as the Sternoxi, whose legs are never fitted for leaping, and whose body is generally an oblong oval, with the antennre of the males either pectinated, fiabellated, or serrated, the palpi filiform or somewhat longer at the extremity, and the posterior angles of the thorax prolonged into an acute point, present mandibles projecting beyond the labrum, narrow, and highly arcuated or in the form of hooks. The labrum is usually vel'y short, and emarginated or bilobate. There, as in the Elaterides, the prresternum terminates posteriorly in a point, received into a cavity in the mesosternum. The antennre, which in the males of some species are long, are composed of eleven pectinated or serrated joints. The last joint of the palpi is almost cylindrical or forms a reversed cone. ill and therefore was unable to study its characters in detail. Two Insecta from Java present a similar appearance, only here, and probably in the females, the antenna: are simply serrated. The mandibles appeared to me to terminate in an entire or edentated point. The last joint of the pal pi is somewhat larger and almost obconical. If the mandible& of the Phylloceri be similar, these exotic spe· cies must he their congeners. Of the numerous and beautiful species of Elateride.s, proper to the United States, we will merely name the E. areolatus, dorsalis, bellus, recticollis, obestts, ery~~} lUI,ocz,latua, myops, convexa, triangulari mancus, basilaris, ateripilis, abbrevinta, !Mtctm, rubricollia, &c., &c., &c. See Say's paper on Coleop. Insects, &c. Jour. Ac. Nat, Sc. of Phi lad. III, p. 167, et seq. .11m. Ed. |