BEETLES. 



397 



FIG. 485. Calathus 

 impunctata. 



FIG. 486. Diccelus 

 purpuratus. 



About eighty-five North American species of described Carabidse, which are con- 

 siderably flattened, and resemble, to a certain extent, those of Lebia, but are not 

 usually as vividly colored, and are generally somewhat larger, are 

 included in the genus Platynus. The entire coloration of P. cupri- 

 penms, a North American species about 0.8 of an inch long, is metallic 

 green with reddish reflections. P. octopunctatus, which is common 

 in New England, although not as common as P. cupripennis, is simi- 

 lar in size and coloration to the latter species, but has four deeply im- 

 pressed punctures arranged longitudinally near the inner margin of 

 each elytron. Many of the species of this genus are black. Differing 

 systematically from Platynus, in having the claws more or less serrate, 

 is Calathus. In the last two genera the elytra are obliquely sinuate ; 



but in Lachnopharus, of which L. rugosus from Brazil is figured, 

 the elytra are round at the tip. 



Diccelus comprises about twenty species of Coleoptera, all of 

 which are North American. These beetles have the pronotum flat- 

 tened, with a few slight wrinkles and an upturned margin ; the elytra 

 are striate. D. splendidus^ from the southern United States, is over 

 an inch long, and black with coppery-bronze elytra. D. purpuratus, 

 a purplish-black species about an inch long; D. elongatus and D. 

 dilatatus, both black, and 0.7 and 0.8 of an inch long respectively, 

 are all found on the Atlantic slope as far north as Massachusetts. 

 Dr. G. H. Horn has described the larva of a species of Diccelus, pos- 

 sibly of D. dilatatus. The body of the larva is dark greenish blue and 

 semi-opaque, its head being reddish yellow. The larva is narrowed to- 

 ward both ends ; and the anal segment is armed with two slender inward- 

 curved processes, between which the anus extends as a corneous tube 

 equal in length to an abdominal segment. Its antenna?, although, as is 

 usual in this family, four-jointed, are about one-third the length of the 

 body. The legs increase in length from the first to the third pair. 

 Pupation, which takes place beneath logs or in the ground, lasts but a 

 week. Nearly related, systematically, to Diccelus is Badister. J3. 

 bipustulatus, from Europe, is about 0.2 of an inch long, brown, with black head and 

 two curved black lines on each elytron. Its larva has been described by Schiodte. 



The genera Pterostichus, Amara, JEvarthrus, and Loxandrus^ each 

 contain numerous species ; but they are separated with difficulty, and 

 but little is known of their life history. Most of the species of these 

 genera are black. A few have metallic colors, or vary from brown to 

 red. Allied to these genera is Zabrus, of which Z. gibbus has already 

 been mentioned on accoiint of its destructiveness to crops. Amara 

 FIG 488 Pteros- s ^ ni ^ ata i another European species, is said to eat both flowers and leaves 

 tjchus lucuUan- o f the shepherd's-pui'se (Capsella bursa-pastoris) . To this same group 

 of genera belong Catadromus, of which the Javanese (J. tenebrioides is 

 figured on the plate. 



Anophthalmus, already mentioned as a genus of blind cave beetles, contains about 

 fifty species, of which seven are North American, being found in the caves of the 

 Ohio Valley, and the rest European. The first North American species described was 

 A. tellkampfii) from Mammoth Cave, in Kentucky. It is about 0.3 of an inch long, 



FlG.487. - 



ter bipustulatus. 



