430 INSECTA. 



tribe, which are even of as firm and solid a consistence as the Ster- 

 noxi, whose legs are never fitted for leaping, and whose body is ge- 

 nerally an oblong oval, with the antennae of the males either pectinat- 

 ed, flabellated, or serrated, the palpi filiform or somewhat longer at 

 the extremity, and the posterior angles of the thorax prolonged into 

 an acute point, present mandibles projecting beyond the labrum, 

 narrow, and highly arcuated or in the form of hooks. The labrum 

 is usually very short, and emarginated or bilobate. 



There, as in the Elaterides, the praesternum terminates posteriorly 

 in a point, received into a cavity in the mesosternum. 



The antennae, which in the males of some species are long, are 

 composed of eleven pectinated or serrated joints. The last joint of 

 the palpi is almost cylindrical or forms a reversed cone. 



PHYSODACTYLUS, Fisc/i. 



An orbicular membranous pellet (sole on planta) on the inferior 

 surface of the three intermediate joints of the tarsi ; the posterior 

 thighs enlarged; the antennae, at least in one of the sexes, very short, 

 serrated, and insensibly diminished towards the extremity. 



This subgenus has been established by the celebrated author of 

 the Entomographia Imperii Russici, on an Insect from North Ame- 

 rica, the P. Henningii, Letter on the Physodactylus, Moscow, 1824, 

 Ann. des Sc. Nat. Dec. 1824, XXVII, B. 



CEBRIO, Oliv. Fab. 



In Cebrio proper, all the joints of the tarsi are entire and without 

 pellets, and the posterior thighs are not larger than the others. 



The species peculiar to Europe appear in great numbers 

 after heavy rains. The female * of the best known species 

 C.gigas, Fab.; C .-longicornis, Oliv., Col. II, 30, bis, I, 1, a, 

 b, c; Taupin, I, 1, a, b, c, differs greatly from the male; the 

 antennae are hardly longer than the head, and the first joint is 

 much longer than the others; the fourth and following ones 

 united from a little oblong and almost perfoliaceous mass. The 

 wings are partly abortive. The legs are shorter, but stouter in 

 proportion, than those of the male. The larva probably lives 

 in the earth. 



The C. bicolor, Fab. f, and some other American species, in 

 which the body is elongated, less arcuated above or almost straight, 

 and with shorter antennae, appear to Dr. Leach to constitute a new 

 generic section J. 



* Cebrio brevicornis, Oliv., Col. II, 30, his, I, 2, a, b, c ; Tenebrio dubius, Rossi, 

 Faun. Etrusc. I, 1, 2. This female, on account of her antennae, appeared to me to 

 form a new genus, which I accordingly established under the name of Hammonia. A 

 species is found at the Cape of Good Hope, each joint of whose antennae throws out 

 a long and linear branch from the base of its internal side, and whose palpi termi- 

 nate in an ovoid joint, and not in the form of a reversed cone, as in the other species. 

 This latter may be separated from them. 



f Palisot de Beauvois, Insect. d'Afr. et d'Am., I, 1, 2, a, b. 



J The Ccb. fuscus and ruficollis, Fab., have the form of the species he calls the 

 gigas. The second was brought from Sicily by M. LefeVre. The Cebrio femo- 

 ratus, of Germar, does not belong to the genus Anelastes of Kirby, as I once sup- 

 posed. 



