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Show 510 INSECTA. tirely black, with silky hairs at the extremity of the proboscis. It lives on the pith of the Palms of South America. The inhabitants of that country consider its larva, called the ver-palmiate, as a great delicacy( 1 ). In the fifth subgenus, or CossoNus, Clairv. We observe antennre hardly longer than the head and proboscis, with eight joints anterior to the club. They are stout, and inserted near the middle of the proboscis(2). The last or DRYOPTHORus, Schrenh.-Bulbifer, Dej. With respect to the tarsi is anomalous. They consist of joints, neither of which is bilobate. The antennre have but six joints, the last forming the club(3). FAMILY II. XYLOPHAGI. In our second family of tetramerous Coleoptera, we find the head terminating as usual, without any remarkable projection, in the form of a proboscis or snout. The antennre are thicker near the. extremity, or perfoliate at base, always short, and consist of less than eleven joints in a great number. The joints of the tarsi are usually entire( 4 ), the penultimate being sometimes widened and cordiform in others ; in this case the an tenure always terminate in a club, either solid and ovoid, or tri· foliate, and the palpi are small and conical. These Insects mostly live in wood which is perforated and channelled in various directions by their larvro. When they happen to abound in forests, those of Pines and Firs particu· larly, they destroy in a few years immense numbers of trees, which are rendered useless for any purpose of art. Others do (1) The genera Sipulus (.flcorltinus, Dej.). Oxyrltyncltus, Rltynchophorus (Ca-landra) of Schrenherr. See the article Calandre of Olivier. (2) The genera .llmorphocerus, Cassonus, Rhincolus, of Schrenherr. (3) Lixus, Lymexylon, Fab. (4) Their number in some appears to amount to five. These Insects seem to connect themselves with the Crytophagi and other analogous Pentamer:t. COLEOPTERA. 511 · t i~jury to the Olive,,and some again feed on Mushrooms. gr; e will divide this family into three sections. · 1. Those in which the antennre are composed of ten joints at mo St ' Sometimes terminating in a stout club, most· commonly r d and sometimes consisting of three elongated leaflets; and so 1 thers forming a cylindrical and perfoliate club from their at 0 base, and in which the palp1• are com• caI. 'fhe an~er1. 0r l egs of the greater number are. dentated and ~rmed ~I.th a. stout h k and the tarsi, of wh1ch the penultimate JOint IS fre- q0ue0n't ly cordiform or bilobate, are suscepti. ble of be.m g fl exe d on them. s me have very small palpi, the body convex and rounded above, or a~most ovoid, the head globular and plunged into th~ :borax, ·and the antennre solid or trilamellate, and preceded by five JOints at least. These Xylophagi form the genus ScoLYTus, Geoff. Confounded by Linnreus with the Dermestes. Sometimes the penultimate joint of the tarsi is bilobate, and there are seven or eight joints in the antennre anterior to the clu~. In I H ~LURGus, Lat.-Hylesinus, Fa b. The club of the antennre is solid, almost globular, obtuse, not at allor but slightly compressed, and annulated transversely; the body is almost cylindrical( 1 ). HYLESINus, Fab. Where the club of the antennre is also terminated in a solid club, but slightly or not at all compressed, and ann~lated transversely, but tapering to a point. The body is almost o.vold.(2). . In the two following subgenera this club 1s stlll sohd, but strongly compressed; its inferior joints form concetitriccurves. In SooLYTus, Geoff.-Hylesinus, Fab.-Eccoptogaster, Herbst. Gyllenh • . Or Scolytus properly so called, the antennre are straight,_ beard-. less, and ·m serted close to the m· ner margm· of the eyes ' wh1ch are narrow, elongated, and vertical(3). (1) Lat., Gener. Crust. et Insect., IT, p. 274; Gyll., Insect., Suec., IV, P· 618· (2) Lat., lb., P· 279. 2 9 {3) Lat., lb., p. 278; Gyll., Insect. Suec., III, P· 215, and IV, P· 7 • |
