486 1NSECTA. 



Steropes, Stev. Blastanus, Hoffm. 



Where the antennae are terminated by three cylindrical joints 

 much longer than the preceding ones(l). In 



Notoxus, Geoff. Oliv. Jlnthicus, Payk. Fab. 



Or Notoxus properly so called, where the antennae enlarge insen- 

 sibly and are almost entirely composed of obconical joints, and 

 where the thorax is obovoid, narrowed and truncated posteriorly, or 

 divided into two globular points. 



Some species, such as the N.monoceros; Meloe monoceros, L. j 

 Oliv., Col., Ill, 51, 1, 2, have a projecting horn on the thorax. 

 The body is two lines in length, of a light fulvous colour, with 

 two points at the base of each elytron, and a transverse band 

 curved towards the suture, black; the horn is dentated. Of 

 those in which the thorax is destitute of a horn, some are ap- 

 terous^). 



The two last tribes of this family and of the section of the 

 Heteromera present certain common characters, such as man- 

 dibles terminating in a simple point ; the palpi filiform, or 

 merely slightly thickened towards the extremity, but never 

 ending in a securiform club ; the abdomen soft ; the elytra 

 flexible, and in most of them epispastic ; all the joints of the 

 tarsi, some few excepted, entire, and their hooks generally 

 bifid. In a perfect state they are all herbivorous, but seve- 

 ral, in their first state, or that of larvae, are parasitical. 



The Horiales, composing the fifth tribe, differ from those 

 which constitute the sixth, or the CantharidijE, in their 

 hooks, which are indented and accompanied (each) by a ser- 

 rated appendage. These Insects have filiform antennas., as 

 long, at most, as the thorax, a small labrum, strong and salient 

 mandibles, filiform palpi, square thorax, and very robust pos- 

 terior legs, at least in one of the sexes. 



The metamorphoses of the Spotted Horia, an Insect inha- 

 biting the Antilles and South America, are described in the 



(1) Steropes caspius, Stev., Mem. Nat. Mosc, I, 166, x, 9, 10; Fisch., Entomog. 

 Imp. Russ., II, xii, 6; Schaenh., Synon. Insect., I, ii, 54. 



(2) See Oliv., Col., and Encyc. Method.; Schoenh., Ibid. The Odacantha tri- 

 pustulata of Fabricius is a Notoxus. 





