348 INSECTA. 



Physodacttlus, Fisch. 



An orbicular membranous pellet (sole or planta) on the inferior 

 surface of the three intermediate joints of the tarsi; the posterior 

 thighs enlarged; the antennae, at least in one of the sexes, very short, 

 serrated, and insensibly diminished towards the extremity. 



This subgenus has been established by the celebrated author of 

 the Entomographia Imperii Russici, on an Insect from North Ame- 

 rica, the P. Henningii, Letter on the Physodactylus, Moscow, 1824, 

 Ann. des Sc. Nat. Dec. 1824, XXVII, B. 



Cebrio, Oliv. Fab. 



In Cebrio proper, all the joints of the tarsi are entire and without 

 pellets, and the posterior thighs are not larger than the others. 



The species peculiar to Europe appear in great numbers 

 after heavy rains. The female(l) of the best known species 

 C. gigas, Fab.; C. lo?igicornis, Oliv., Col. II, 30, bis, I, 1, a, 

 b, c; Taupin, I, 1, a, b, c, differs greatly from the male; the an- 

 tennae are hardly longer than the head, and the first joint is 

 much longer than the others; the fourth and following ones 

 united form a little oblong and almost perfoliaceous mass. The 

 wings are partly abortive. The legs are shorter, but stouter in 

 proportion, than those of the male. The larva probably lives 

 in the earth. 

 The C. bicolor, Fab. (2), and some other American species, in 

 which the body is elongated, less arcuated above or almost straight, 

 and with shorter antennae, appear to Dr Leach to constitute a new 

 generic section(3). 



Here the praesternum is not prolonged into a point, and there is no 

 anterior cavity in the mesosternum. 



(1) Cebrio brevicornis, Oliv., Col. II, 30, bis, I, 2, a, b, c; Tenebrlo dubius, Rossi, 

 Faun. Etrusc. I, 1, 2. This female, on account of her antennae, appeared to me 

 to form a new genus which I accordingly established under the name of Hammo- 

 nia. A species is found at the Cape of Good Hope, each joint of whose antennae 

 throws out a long and linear branch from the base of its internal side, and whose 

 palpi terminate in an ovoid joint, and not in the form of a reversed cone, as in the 

 other species. This latter may be separated from them. 



(2) Palisot de Beauvois, Insect. d'Afr. et d'Am , I, 1, 2, a, b. 



(3) The Ceb- fuscus and rujicollis, Fab., have the form of the species he calls the 

 gigas. The second was brought from Sicily by M. Lefevre. The Cebrio femo- 

 ratus, of Germar, does not belong to the genus Andastes of Kirby, as I once sup- 

 posed. 



