COLEOPTEUA. 443 



corneous tooth or hook, all the joints of the tarsi are entire, 

 and the eyes oblong and but very slightly prominent, a cir- 

 cumstance, which, according to M. Marcel de Serres, indi- 

 cates their nocturnal habits. Almost all these Insects live on 

 the ground, either in sand, or under stones, and frequently in 

 cellars, stables, and other dark places about our habitations. 

 According toM. Dufour Ann. des Sc. Nat., V, p. 276 

 the biliary vessels are inserted into the inferior face of the 

 csecum by a single trunk, resulting from the confluence of 

 two very short branches, formed by the union of three biliary 

 vessels. The bile is yellow, sometimes brown or violet. The 

 alimentary canal Ann. des Sc. Nat., Ill, p. 478 is long, 

 and its length in our first tribe, or the Pimeliariae, is thrice 

 that of the body ; the esophagus is long and leads to a crop 

 smooth or glabrous externally, that is more developed in these 

 latter Insects, where it forms an ovoid sac lodged in the pec- 

 tus ; it is marked internally with longitudinal plicae or fleshy 

 columns, terminating in some Erodii, Pimelise near the 

 chylific ventricle, at a valve formed of four principal corneous, 

 oval and connivent parts ; the chylific ventricle is elongated, 

 flexuous or doubled, most commonly covered with little pa- 

 pilla} resembling projecting points, and terminated by a small 

 collar, callous within, which receives the first insertion of the 

 biliary vessels. The same anatomist has observed in some 

 subgenera of this family Blafis, jlsida a salivary apparatus, 

 consisting of two floating vessels or tubes, sometimes per- 

 fectly simple Jlsida and at others irregularly ramous 

 Flaps ; he is also convinced that they exist in the other Pime- 

 liarise. M. Marcel de Serres Observations sur les usages 

 des di verses parties du tube intestinal des Insectes, Ann. du 

 Mus. d'Hist. Nat. has carefully studied the texture of the 

 tunics of the alimentary canal(l). The adipose tissue is more 



; 



(1) What M. Dufour styles the chylific ventricle, M. de Serres calls the sto- 

 mach, and relative to other Insects the duodenum. What he calls the small intes- 

 tine is considered by the first as the cxcum. According- to M- Dufour, M. M. de 

 Serres has not mentioned the crop of the Melasomn, although in Akis and Pimelia 

 t is very apparent 



