378 INSECT A. 



thorax, widest in the middle; the tibiae are narrow, elongated, but 

 slightly widened at the end, and terminated by two ordinary spurs; 

 the elytra are obliquely truncated. 



Species of this subgenus are found in Europe, tropical Ame- 

 rica, the East Indies and New Holland(l). 



Sometimes the body is oval or ovoid; the head, not at all or but 

 very slightly strangulated posteriorly, and narrower than the thorax; 

 the thorax either almost semicircular and truncated, or trapezoidal 

 and wider behind; the elytra rounded or simply emarginated at the 

 posterior extremity. There is but little or no difference in the pos- 

 terior legs of the two sexes. 



The maxillae are armed internally with a tooth or squamous hook. 



Silpha, Lin. Fab. Pettis, Geoff. 



The body almost scutiform and depressed, or but slightly elevated; 

 thorax semicircular, truncated or very obtuse before; exterior mar- 

 gin of the elytra strongly recurved and canaliculated; palpi fili- 

 form, their last joint almost cylindrical, and in several, terminating 

 in a point. Most of them live in carrion, and thus diminish the 

 quantity of its noxious effluvia. Some climb on plants, and parti- 

 cularly on the stems of Wheat, where they find little Helices on 

 which they feed. Others remain on high trees and devour cater- 

 pillars. The larvae are all equally active, live in the same manner, 

 and frequently in large societies. They bear a great resemblance to 

 the perfect Insect. Their body is flattened, and consists of twelve 

 segments, with acute posterior angles; the posterior extremity is 

 narrower and terminated by two conical appendages. 



In most of the species, the two anterior tarsi of the males are 

 alone more dilated than the others. The antennae insensibly enlarge 

 or terminate abruptly in a club of four joints at most, the second 

 and third of which differ but little; the last joint of the maxillary 

 palpi is, at most, as long as the penultimate, and frequently some- 

 what shorter and more slender. 



Those species in which the extremity of the antennae is distinctly 

 perfoliaceous or composed of joints, which, the last excepted, are 

 wider than they are long, where this club is abrupt, and the elytra 

 are emarginated at their extremity, at least in the males, form the 

 genus Thanatophilus, Leach(2). 



(1) Silpha littoralis, Fab., Oliv., Col., II, i, 8, a, b, c; S. surinamensis, Fab. 

 Oliv., lb., II; S. lachrymosa, Schreib., Lin. Trans., VI, xx, 5; S. indica, 

 Fab., &c. 



(2) Silpha sinaata, Fab.; Oliv., lb., II, 12; S. dispar, Ulig\, Gyllenh., &c. 



