OCR Text |
Show 452 INSECTA. or triangular joint. M: Dufour has observed, that in this genus as well as in that of Asida, the crop is less developed than in the Pimeliarire, and that the little valve, at which it terminates pos· teriorly, is not formed · of those four principal corneous or connivent pieces of which it is composed in the preceding tt·ibe, but by the approximation of its interior fleshy columns. The chylific ventricJe is proportionally longer, and the spermatic capsules are less numerous. These Insects, according to the same naturalist, are provided with a double excrementitious secreting apparatus, totally diffe1·ing in structure from that of the Pentamera. It consists of two tolerably large oblong bladders, situated altogether under the viscera of digestion and generation, closely approximated to each other, with extremely thin parietes, and surrounded with adhering vascular folds more or less turgid; the precise point of their insertion, from the utter impossibility of unrolling them, can scarcely be de· termined. The same remark applies to the canals by which the secreted liquid is evacuated ; they are concealed by a sort of membranous diaphragm, which, by means of a fleshy pani· cle, is applied to the last segment of the venter. The secreted fluid issues latcra1ly from the last annulus, and not from its extremity ; it is ejected to the distance of seven or eight inches, is brownish, acrid, extremely irritating, and has ape· culiar and penetrating odour. This tribe is formed of a single genus, that of BLAPS • • Those, in which the body is generally oblong, with the abdomen clasped laterally by the elytra, that are most usually narrowed to· wards the end, and terminated in a point or in the manner of a tail, and in which the tarsi are almost similar in the two sexes, and without any notable dilatation, will form our first division. The mentum in some is small, or hardly occupying in width more than the third of that of the under ·part of the head, and almost square or orbicular. Here, all the tibire are slender, without strong ridges or teeth on the outer s~de. The thorax is never dilated anteriorly, nor in the form of a widely truncated heart. In COLEOPTEI~A. 453 OxuRA, Kirb. The body is narrow and elongated; the thorax longer than 'it is wide, ovoid, and truncated at both ends; --and the intermediate joints of the antennre long and cylindrical( I). In AcANTHOMERA, Lat.-Pimelia, Fab. The thorax is almost orbicular and transversal; the abdomen nearly globular; the third joint of th'e antennre cylinclrical.and much longer than the following ones, which are almost of the same form, and the three last at most granose( 2 ). MxsoLAMPus, Lat-Pimelia, Herbst. Where the thorax is almost globular and the abdomen nearly ovoid; the third and fourth joints of the antennre are equal, and cylindrical, the eighth and two following ones a little stouter, almost turbiniform, and the eleventh or last larger and ovoid(3). In BLAPS, Fab. Or Blaps properly so called, the thorax is almost square and plane, or but slightly convex. The abdomen is oval, truncated transversely at base, and more or less elongated. The elytra of most of them are narrowed and prolonged into a point, those of the males especially. The third jolnt of the antennre is cylindrical and much longer than the following ones; the latter, or at least the three antepenultimate ones, are granose; the last is ovoid and short. With those species in which the body and abdomen are . proportionally less elongated and wider, in which the elytra of the females terminate in a very short point, and where the thorax is almost plane, are arranged the B. mortisaga, Oliv., Col., III, 60, 1, 2, 6; Tenebrio mortisaga, L. Length, ten lines; black, but slightly lustrous; smooth; simply punctured above; thorax almost square, offering on each side of its posterior margin vestiges of a small flattened border; extremity of the elytra forming a short and obtuse point. In dark and filthy localities near privies, and frequently in houses. (1) Oxuraaetoaa, Kirby, Lin. Trans., XII, xxii, 3. (2) Pimelia dentipea, Fab., and some other species. The anterior thighs are inftated and dentated; the body is very upequal and cinereous; the spurs of the tibia: very small. (3) Lat., Gener. Crust. et Insect., JI, p. 160, and I, x, 8, Pimelia gibbula, Herbst., Col., VIII, cxx, 7. |