116 THE SERRICORNIA. 



eyes, a spot on the forehead, the breast and base of 

 the abdomen, which are black or blackish; the 

 antennae are brown, but reddish at the base, and the 

 legs are red, with the middle and hinder tibiae and 

 the tips of the hinder thighs black. It measures 

 about half an inch in length, and the whole body, 

 including the elytra, is of a soft flexible texture, very 

 different from the hard covering of the Click Beetles 

 and their allies"^. 



In the Sailors too, which also belong to the genus 

 Telephorus, and in fact differ from the Soldiers prin- 

 cipally in the black colour of their elytra, this softness 

 of all parts of the body is very striking. There are 

 also plenty of other characters to distinguish the 

 group of insects of which these may be taken as 

 typical examples from the Click Beetles, — the legs 

 are long and stout, the prothorax is destitute of the 

 spines at its hinder angles, and the prosternum of its 

 posterior spine; the mesosternum also, wants the 

 cavity for the reception of the latter. The insects 

 are consequently incapable of leaping when laid upon 

 their backs, but the greater development of their legs 

 renders this of little consequence, as by their assist- 

 ance they can easily regain their natural position. 

 The prothorax often (as in the Telephori) forms a 

 sort of shield, which not unfrequently conceals the 

 head, but the latter is always attached to the body in 

 a manner which permits far more freedom of motion 

 than is possible to the Click Beetles. 



* From this softness of their integuments the group to which 

 these Beetles belong has been called Malacodermata ; this cha- 

 racter, however, does not prevail universally throughout the 

 group, although the majority of the species and all the most 

 typical ones exhibit it wath great distinctness. 



