244 COLEOPTERA OF NORTH AMERICA. 



Tribe VI.— PLEOtOMIlVI. 



This tribe contains four Californian species, of moderately 

 large size, black, rounded, not very convex, with the body, parts 

 of the mouth, and legs clothed with very long hair. The elytra 

 are irregularly punctured, and the head is armed with a perpen- 

 dicular horn between the eyes, and the front is prolonged and 

 bifurcated; above the insertion of the antennos is an acute lobe. 

 The antennae have eleven joints, of which the last 5-1 form a 

 large laniellated mass, varying according to species; the labruni 

 is elongated, rounded at the apex, and deflexed. The mandibles 

 are pyramidal and short; the inner lobe of the niaxillaj is very 

 small, and hooked at the tip; the outer one is larger, but still 

 small, rounded at tip, and hairy ; the maxillary palpi are long 

 and slender, the second joint equal to the third and fourth, the 

 third being only half as long as the fourth. The mentum is 

 nearly semicircular; the ligula is entirely concealed by the base 

 of the labial palpi, which are moderate in length, the third joint 

 being as long as the first and second together. The anterior 

 coxae are large, conical, prominent; the middle ones contiguous, 

 prominent, conical, oblique; the elytra cover the pygidium almost 

 entirely. The anterior tibite are 3-toothed, and have two small 

 teeth above the upper tooth ; the middle and hind tibiae are ex- 

 panded at tip, and have tv\'o acute teeth placed transversely about 

 the middle on the external surface. The tarsi are longer than 

 tlie tibitB, and slender, the joints 1-4 equal, the fifth longer than 

 the two preceding ; the claws slender, with a narrow bisetose 

 onychium. Ventral segmewts free, the sixth retracted within the 

 fifth. The females arc much larger than the males, heavy robust 

 insects with very short antennae, thick legs and short tarsi : they 

 are rarely seen, and are subterranean in habits. Of the males, 

 Mr. Schaufuss-Bliithner writes, that they are frequently washed 

 out of the burrows of the common Spermophile of California, by 

 the heavy rains of the latter i)art of winter, but that he has found 

 only three females. The larva, from a specimen collected by Mr. 

 Bluthner, has been described by Baron R. Osten Sacken, and its 

 characters entirely confirm the opinion already expressed regard- 

 ing the relations of the genus. 



