OCR Text |
Show 476 INSECTA. In the following subgenus, the body is narrow and almost liuear The thorax fo1•ms a long square, narrowed posteriorly. ' HvPuLus, Payk.-Dircrea, Fab. The antennre longer than in the preceding subgenus, slightly per· foliate and more separate; the three last joints of the maxillary palpi forming, together, an oval club( 1 ). Sometimes the antennre are slender, and composed of elongated and almost cylindl'ical joints; the body is long and narrow. and the abdomen elongated. SERROPALPus, Hellw. Payk.-Dircrea, Fab. Where the body is firm, the maxillat·y palpi are strongly senated1 the thorax is at least as long as it is wide, and the four posterior tarsi are long; all the joints of the two last are entire or without any apparent incisures(2). CoNOPALPus, Gyll. Where the body is soft, the maxillary palpi are but slightly ser. rated, the thorax is tran~:~versal, and the tarsi mode1·ately elongated; the penultimate joint of the whole number is bilobate(3). The fourth tribe, that of the ffiDEMERITEs, is connected with the third by several characters, such as having the an· tennre inserted near the eyes, and their origin exposed, the mandibles bifid at the end, the penultimate joint of the tarsi bilobate, and the maxillary pal pi terminated by a larger and securiform joint; but if we except the Nothi, approximated by the form and breadth of the thorax, and by some other characters to certain Heteromera of the preceding tribe, and yet distinguished from them by their strongly inflated poste· rior thighs, and their bicleft tarsial hooks, the (Edemerites present a union of characters which will not allow us to con· found them with the other Heteromera. The body is elon· gated, narrow, almost linear, and the head and thorax are ( 1) Dirc;ea bifasciata, Gyll., Insect. Suec., I, ii, p. 522;-ejllsd., D. quqcina,lb., p. 523. (2) Gyll., Insect. Snec., J, ii, p. 514; Lat., Gener. Crust. et Insect., Jl, p.l92, and I, ix, 12. (3) Gyll., lb., p. 547; Dejean, Catal., p. 70. COLEOPTF.RA. 471 somewhat narrower than the abdomen. The antennre are longer than the two latter, serrated in some-Calopus---:filiform or setaceous, and composed of long and almost cylindrical joints in the others; the anterior extremity of the head is more or less prolonged into a little snout, and somewhat nal'rowed behind; the eyes are proportionally more elevated than in the prer.eding Heteromera. The thorax is at least as long as it is broad, almost square, or nearly cylindrical, and slightly narrowed behind; the elytra are linear or subulate posteriorly, and frequently flexible. These Insects are allied to Telephorus and Zonitis. M. Leon Dufour has discovered in the <Edemerites two very simple, flexuous, and floating salivary vessels( I), as well as a paunch formed by a lateral crop, furnished with a neck or pedicle. Th~y are the only Coleoptera in which he lias observed it. These Insects are found on flowers or trees. Their metamorphoses are unknown. These Heteromera will be comprised in a single genus, the <EnEM;ERA, Oliv. Here, where the antennre are always short, inserted into an emargination of the eyes, and simple, the posterior thighs ·are inflated, at least in one of the sexes, the thorax is as wide as the base of the abdomen, and wider than the head; the hooks of the tarsi are bifid. NoTHus, Ziegl. Oliv.-Osphya, Illig.-Dryops, Schrenh. Where the maxillary palpi are terminated by a large, secul'iform and elongated joint. The postel'ior legs are very stout in one of the sexes, with one stout tooth and two small spurs beneath, near the (1) The Mordellones present the same character. In a more natural series it would perhaps be necessary to place the Horire, which also have the posterior thighs inflated, immediately after Zonitis and Sitaris, then pass to the <Edemerites and Mordellones, and terminate the Heteromera with the Notoxi or .!lnthicua of Fabricius, Insects evidently connected with the Mordellones by the Scraptire. In my Gener. Crust. et Insect., 1 have placed the <Edemerites at the end of the same section. The Rhrebi of M. F'ischer, although tetramcrous, are allied in many respects to the Nothi and ffidemerre. The Xylophili, also tetramerous, are however closely related to the Notoxi. |