INSECTA. 



HYLECCETUS, Lat. MELOE, CANTHARIS, Lin. LYMEXYLON, Fab. 



H. dermestoides ; Meloe Marci, L., the male; Lymexylon 

 morio, Fab.; L. proboscideum, Id.; Cantharis dermestoides, L., 

 the female; H. dermestoides, Fab., Id.; Oliv., Col, 11,25; I, 1, 

 2, It. The female is six lines in length ; pale-fulvous ; pectus 

 and eyes black. The male is black; the elytra sometimes 

 blackish, and sometimes reddish, with a black extremity. Ger- 

 many, England, and the north of Europe. 



There, the antennae are simple, slightly or not at all compressed, 

 and almost moniliform. The thorax is nearly cylindrical. 



LYMEXYLON, Fab. CANTHARIS, Lin. ELATEROIDES, Schceff. 



L. navale, Fab., the female ; L. jlavipes, Id., the male; Oliv., 

 Ib., I, 4. Length of the preceding, but narrower ; pale-fulvous ; 

 the head, exterior margin, and extremity of the elytra, black ; 

 the latter colour rather more predominant in the male. This 

 Insect is very common in the Oak forests of the north of 

 Europe, but rare in the vicinity of Paris; its larva is very 

 long and slender, almost resembling a Filaria. It multiplied so 

 excessively in the dock yards at Toulon some years ago, as to 

 destroy great quantities of timber*. 



In the others the palpi are very short, and similar in both sexes f. 



The antennae are always simple and of equal thickness throughout. 



The tarsi are short, and the penultimate joint in some is bilobate. 



The body is of a firm consistence, the top of the head unequal or 

 sulcated, and the thorax nearly square or suborbicular. 



CUPES, Fab. 



Joints of the antennae almost cylindrical ; penultimate joint of the 

 tarsi bifid, mandibles unidentated under the point; palpi, maxillae, 

 and ligula exposed, the latter bilobate; mentum nearly semi-or- 

 bicular. 



Two species are known, both proper to North America {. 



RHYSODES, Lat. Dalm. 



The antennae granose and all the joints of the tarsi entire. The 

 mandibles appear to me to be narrowed and almost tricuspidate at 

 the end ; the mentum is corneous, very large, clypeiform and termi- 

 nated superiorly by three teeth or points ; the palpi are very short. 



* The Lymexylon proboscideum of Olivier, from which he took his description, 

 and which is now in the cabinet of Count de Jousselin of Versailles, should form 

 a separate genus. See also the Lymexylon flabellicorne of Panzer, Faun. Insect. 

 Germ., XI, 10. 



f The last joint, at least that of the maxillary palpi, is somewhat thicker and 

 almost ovoid. 



J Citpcs Capitata, Fab.; Lat., Gencr. Crust, et Insect., I, viii, 2; Coqueb., 

 Illust. Icon. Insect., Ill, xxx, 1. 



