nETEROMEROUS BARK-BEETLES. 



119 



CisTKi.A : — 1, beetle ; 2, 

 tiirsiiH ; 3, tarsiil claw 

 — .iftor Wostwood. 



Family L. PYTIIID^. 

 Another small family coiitaiiiin<; less than a dozen North American 

 species, the most remarkable of which belong to the genns Salpingus, 

 which ditlers from all other Coleoptera except the Curculionidie, in hav- 

 ing the head prolonged in front in the form of a snont, sometimes of 

 considerable length. The two leading genera are Fytho, Latr., and 

 8al2>in(jus, lUiger. 



Family LI. CISTELID^. 



This is a family of considerable extent, and some of the species are 

 amongst our most common insects. They are smooth, oval beetles, of 

 moderate or rather small size, and are generally 

 clothed with minute hairs, which give a silken gloss 

 to the surface. Their most distincti\'e character is 

 the pectinate or comb-toothed claws at the end of the 

 tarsi. This, like most other minute characters, can 

 be best seen by holding the insect up against the 

 light of a window and examining it through a lens. 

 This character is very rare in the Coleoptera, and 

 therefore quite distinctive where it occurs. We have already seen it 

 to exist in the genus Lchia and a few other Carabidir, and a modifica- 

 tion of it occurs in the families JMeloidie and Mordellidie. 



Our most common species of Cistelidio are plain, brownish beetles 

 without spots. Thirty-five species have been described, most of which 

 are contained in the genera Cifitehi* and AUevula of Fabricius; the 

 former having merely simple tarsi and the latter having the anterior 

 tarsi somewhat dilated, and all of them with the penultimate joint 

 bilobed. 



Family LII. MELANDRYIDJE. 



The insects of this family were called Serropalpi 

 by Latreille, to express their most remarkable char- 

 acter : that of having the joints of the maxillary 

 palpi — which are usually long and pendulous — more 

 or less enlarged in the form of saw-teeth, the last 

 melaxduya :-i, beetle Joint being the largest, and usually hatchet-shaped. 

 siimvtnV'h^nio si/'e^^ It is a family of moderate extent, containing forty- 

 thJl^V.Vn.iian-.ints of five N. A. species. They never much exceed half 

 llr weHtlvood/'"''''""' »" inch iu length, and some are less than half that 



* This name— ilerived from the Greek Au'c— a chest, appears to have been given originally bj' Geof- 

 frov to the insects of the genus liyrrhim, Liim., to the short and tliick bodies of which it was not in- 

 applicable. IJut Linna'us having given the name liyrrhus to this genua, the name Cistela was trans- 

 ferred by Fabricius to the present group of heteronierous beetles, where it has now become established 

 by general acceptance and long usage. 



