COLKOPTERA. 461 



ovoid and compressed club, composed of crowded joints, of which the 

 middle one at least is much wider than it is long ; the third is longer 

 than the second and fourth. 



'I'll.- middle of the; posterior margin of the thorax is dilated behind 

 or lobate, and the superior extremity of the mentum terminated in a 

 truncated or bidentated point *. In 



CKYPTOPHAGUS, Herbst. Schcenh. DKRMESTKS, Lin. Fab. IPS, Oliv. 

 Lat. ANTHKROPHAGUS, Knock* 



The antennae are moniliform, their second joint as large as the 

 preceding or larger, and terminating in a less abrupt and narrower 

 club than in Dacne, and with intervals between its segments f. 



We now come to certain tribes in which the praesternum is fre- 

 quently dilated anteriorly in the manner of a chin-cloth, and which 

 differ from the preceding ones in their feet, which are either wholly 

 or partially contractile; the tarsi may be free, but the tibiae at least 

 can be flexed on the thigh. The mandibles are short, and generally 

 thick and dentated. The body is ovoid, thick, and covered with 

 deciduous scales or hairs of various colours. The antennae are 

 straight and usually shorter than the head and thorax. The head is 

 plunged into the thorax as far as the eyes. The thorax is but slightly 

 or not at all bordered, trapezoidal, and wider posteriorly ; the middle 

 of its posterior margin is frequently somewhat prolonged or lobate. 

 The larvae are pilose, and mostly feed on the exuviae or carcasses of 

 animals. Several are very injurious to entomological collections. 



Those then in which the legs are not completely retractile, the 

 tarsi being always free, and the tibiae elongated and narrow, form our 

 seventh tribe, that of the DERMESTINI, and the great genus 



DERMESTES. 



The only insects of this tribe whose antennae do not present two 

 distinct joints, and whose very short and inferiorly inflated palpi 

 afterwards terminate in a point, are those which form the 



ASPIDIPHORUS, Ziegl. Dej. 



Their body is orbicular J. 



From among the species in which the antennae consist of eleven 



* See Fab., Syst. Eleut. 



f See Schcenh., Syuon. Insect., I, ii. p. 96. 



The antennae of the Antherophagi are proportionally thicker, composed of more 

 transversal joints, and terminated almost gradually in a club ; from the second to 

 the eighth they are nearly equal. The Cryptophagus silaceus, Gyll., has a projection 

 iu the form of a tooth or horn on each side of the inferior surface of the head. The 

 Triphylla of Megerl. and Dej. only differ from the Crytophagi in the number of their 

 tarsial joints. 



J Niitdvla orhcuJala, Gyllenb. 



