COLEOPTERA. 561 , 



very small, but are ornamented with various or brilliant colours; 

 they jump with great quickness and to a very great height, and fre- 

 quently destroy the leaves of those plants on which they feed. Their 

 larvae devour the parenchyma, and there undergo their metamor- 

 phosis. Certain species, those particularly which are commonly 

 termed garden fleas, are very injurious in both states to our kitchen 

 gardens. Of all countries, South America furnishes the greatest 

 number. Illiger, in his Entomological Magazine, has published an 

 excellent Monograph of these Insects, which he arranges in nine 

 families, and some of which, in our opinion, should form separate 

 subgenera. Those of the subgenus 



Octogonotes, Drap.(l) 



Are removed from all others by the form of their maxillary palpi. 

 As in Adorium, the penultimate joint is thick and turbiniform, and 

 the last very short and truncated; the termination of the labial palpi 

 is acuminate or subulate, as in all the following subgenera; but here 

 the maxillaries are similarly formed, or are also subulate at their 

 extremity. The last joint of the posterior tarsi of the Octogonotes 

 is abruptly inflated and rounded above, or ampullaceous, with the 

 two terminal hooks inferior and small. 



CEdionychis, Lat. 



Is distinguished by this last character from the following sub- 

 genera. To this subgenus we refer the two first families of Illiger's 

 Monograph. 



But a single species is found in Europe the Jl. rnarginella, 



Oliv., Col., VI, 93, bis, ii, 34 and even that is confined to 



Spain and Portugal(2). 



In the remaining subgenera the last joint of the tarsi is elongated 



and gradually thickened, with the two hooks, of the ordinary size, 



situated as usual at its extremity, and in a longitudinal direction. 



Psylliodes, Lat. 



Where the first joint of the posterior tarsi is very long and insert- 

 ed above the posterior extremity of the tibiae; this extremity is pro- 

 longed in the manner of a conical, compressed, and hollow appen- 



(1) Ann. des Sc. Phys., Ill, p. 181. 



(2) Add the A. bicolor, thoracica, cincta, albicollis, lunula, and some other spe- 

 cies of Olivier. 



Vol. III. 3 V 



