352 PROCEEDINGS OF THE NATIONAL MUSEUM ^pol. 117 



which comprise the Diaperini in its present sense, plus such extra- 

 neous elements as Cossyphus, Oochrotus, Ammobius, Bolitophagus, 

 Erelus, Trachyscelis, Sphindus, and, interestingly enough, Phaleria. 

 The genera now included in the Ulomini were placed in another 

 family ("Tenebrionides"). 



Lacordaire (1859), treating the group on a worldwide basis, divided 

 the "Tenebrionides" into 46 tribes of which number 29 is called 

 "Diaperides." He followed Mulsant closely, retaining the distinction 

 between the "PentaphyUides" (genus Pentaphyllus) and the "Dia- 

 perides vraies," which included all the genera Mulsant recognized 

 plus several tropical genera which need not concern us here {Cos- 

 monota, Ceropria, Hemicera). This work contains no great inno- 

 vation over that of Mulsant. 



Jacquelin du Val (1861) divided the 'Tamille des Tenebrionides" 

 into 23 "Groupes." His "Groupe 18, Diaperites" embraced the 

 "Bohtophagites, Ulomites, Gnathoc^rites and Hypophloeites" or, in 

 other words, the Ulomini and Bolitophagini of modern workers, as 

 well as "Diaperites propres." 



In the diaperines at least, he seems to have been a lumper of higher 

 categories but a splitter at the generic level. His lack of conservatism 

 influenced later workers to include a number of extraneous elements 

 which ultimately made the Diaperini a catch-all for a number of 

 genera which were diflacult to place. 



By the time of Reitter (1911a), the group was again on a relatively 

 firm taxonomic foundation. He divided the Tenebrionidae into 12 

 tribes, the Diaperini containmg Scaphidema, Diaperis, Platydema, 

 Arrhenoplita {=Neom,ida), Alpkitophagus, and Pentaphyllus. 



Around the middle of the 19th century, as the earher North Amer- 

 ican coleopterists began to give serious attention to the Tenebrionidae, 

 they needed only to fit their new finds into an already well-con- 

 structed classification. No sweeping changes have been introduced 

 by any of the American workers who confined their activities in the 

 group to descriptions of new genera and species. The tribe Diaperini 

 as treated by LeConte and Horn (1883) consisted of eight genera 

 divided into three groups. The first group (Diaperes) contained 

 Diaperis, Hoplocephala (=Neomida), Platydema, Phylethus (=Alphi- 

 tophagus), Liodema, and Scaphidema; the second group (Hypophloei) 

 contained Hypophloeus; the third group (Pentaphylli) contained 

 Pentaphyllus. 



As is frequently the case, the greater number of North American 

 species of Diaperini were described by Em"opean workers. Prominent 

 among these were Laporte and Brulle (1831). Through correspond- 

 ence with A. Villiers of the Musee National d'Histoire Naturelle, 

 it was learned that the specimens upon which their monograph was 



