358 INSECTA. 



ous and furnished with stout mandibles. There is a mammilla 

 under the twelfth and last annulus which it uses in crawling. 

 It is carnivorous and inhabits moist earth. 



During the winter of certain years in Sweden, and even in 

 the mountainous parts of France these larvae and various other 

 species of living Insects have been observed among the snow in 

 such abundance as to cover a considerable space. 



It has been very rationally supposed that they had been swept 

 away and deposited there by those violent gusts of wind which 

 uproot and destroy great numbers of trees, particularly Pines 

 and Firs. Such is the origin of what is termed a shower of in- 

 sects. The species then met with are probably such as appear 

 early in the spring. 



T. lividus; Cantharis livida, L.; Oliv., lb., II, 28. Size and 

 form of the preceding; thorax fuscous and immaculate; elytra 

 yellowish; extremity of the posterior thighs black. On flow- 

 ers(l). 



Silis, Meg. Dej. Charp. 



This subgenus only differs from Telephorus in the thorax, which 

 is emarginated posteriorly on each side, and has underneath at 

 least in the S. spinicollis a little coriaceous appendage terminated 

 by a club, whose extremity, probably more membranous, in the 

 dried specimen has the appearance of a joint. A species, the ru- 

 bricollis, is figured by M. Toussaint de Charpentier in his Hor. En- 

 tom., p. 194, 195, vi, 7. 



Malthinus, Lat., Schcen. Necydalis, Geoff. 



The palpi terminated by an ovoid joint; head narrow behind; elytra, 

 in several, shorter than the abdomen. On flowers, and particularly 

 on trees(2). 



In the third tribe of the Malacodermi, or the Melyrides, 

 we find the palpi most commonly short and filiform ; mandi- 

 bles emarginated at the point; the body usually narrow and 

 elongated ; the head only covered at base by a flat or but 

 slightly convex thorax, generally square, or elongated and 



(1) For the other species, see Schoenherr, Synon. Insect., II, p. 60, and Panz., 

 Ind. Entom., p. 91. 



(2) Lat., Gen. Crust, et Insect, I, 261; Schoenh.,Id.II, p. 73; Panz., Id., p-73. 

 The Teleph. biguttatus and minimus of Olivier belong to this genus. 





