﻿143 BRITISH BEETLES. 



their liability to distortion in drying ; the abdomen, es- 

 pecially in the females, being very large and soft. 



Telephorus clypeatus (Plate IX, Fig. 4) is one of the 

 prettiest, owing to its spotted thorax ; unlike many of 

 the members of its genus, it does not vary in colour or 

 marking. Telephorus is divided into three sub-genera ; 

 Ancystronycha, wherein the outer claw of the tarsi in 

 the female has a very strong spine-like tooth ; Tele- 

 jjhorus proper, wherein this tooth is less developed ; and 

 Rhagonycha, in which both the claws are bifid, seeming 

 to be split at the apex. In the latter the tibise, also, are 

 straighter, more slender, and with only obsolete spurs. 



The species of Malthinus and Malthodes have very 

 long slender antennae, and short elytra, scarcely covering 

 two-thirds of the abdomen. They are small, very fra- 

 gile, and are most easily obtained by sweeping under fir- 

 trees. In the former genus the elytra are longer, and 

 the mandibles have a strong tooth near the apex, which 

 is wanting in the latter. 



The Melyrid^ have the clypeus separated by a suture 

 from the forehead (a structure, however, not very evi- 

 dent in the British species); the labrum distinct; the 

 abdomen composed of six segments ; the spurs of the 

 tibiae obsolete or absent ; and the tarsi not bilobed. In 

 Malachius (wherein the antenuse, contrary to the pre- 

 vailing structure of the family, are inserted in the front, 

 instead of at the sides, of the head), Anthocomus, and 

 Ebceus, there are certain retractile vesicles to the pro- 

 thorax and abdomen ; w hicli in some of the small green 

 metallic species of the former genus, assume the appear- 

 ance of the wattles of a cock. Their larvae are carnivo- 

 rous, living under bark, and in dry rotten wood, where 

 they feed upon other larvae, etc. The remainder of the 



