236 INSECTS ABKdAD. 



are fused together iuto a single V-shaped stripe, while the third 

 mark is rounded instead of angular. 



The spikes of the thorax, the first joint of the antenna?, and 

 the tliighs are black, while the rest of the antennie, and the 

 long, slender tibiae, are chestnut. Beneath, the thorax is blacky 

 with some stripes of yellow hair like that of the upper surface. 

 The teeth are black, very powerful, and so bent downwards as 

 to be invisible when the insect is viewed from above. 



I have already mentioned that many of these Beetles are 

 exceedingly beautiful. The handsomest of them is Pyrodes 

 marginatus. The head and thorax are rich gold-green, deeply 

 wrinkled, and the latter being armed with sharp spikes. The 

 elytra are of a deep purple, glossed with warm copper, and each 

 elytron is completely surrounded by a very narrow stripe of 

 shining gold. It is not quite so large as the species which is 

 figured. 



Then we have Pyrodes Smithianus, an exceedingly variable 

 insect, some being blue, glossed with crimson ; while others are 

 wholly olive green, some wholly copper, and others have the 

 centre of the elytra green, and their edges, together with the 

 thorax, metallic copper. Another species, Pyrodes jndcherrmius, 

 is rich shining blue, with a single broad golden band across the 

 elytra; and yet another, Pyrodes columhinus, deep shining blue. 



The sub-family of the Torneutides form a group of lung-bodi ,'d, 

 narrow, flattish Beetles, none of them common, and most of the 

 species being very rare. They all belong to the hotter parts of 

 South America. The name Torneutides is Greek, and signifies 

 anything that has been turned on a lathe. It is given to this 

 group of insects because their bodies are so smooth and regular 

 that they look very much as if they might have been formed 

 on a lathe. 



In the genus to whicli our example, l^Jueiiicocerus Dcjeanii, 

 belongs, the chief characteristic lies in the antenme of the 

 males, which are very much like those of the Oxynopterus, which 

 has been already described on page 158. The generic n ime 

 Phcenicocerus signifies " a conspicuous horn," and has been given 

 to these Beetles in recognition of the extraordinary antenna3. 

 As is often the case where tlie structure of the antennf© is in 

 any way reniarkablr', tlie male sex alone possesses it. tlie 



