INSECTA MADERENSIA. 473 



conico ; labiales (X. 4 e) brevissimi, articulo primo paiTO, secundo et ultimo majoribus iucrassatis 

 (illo subclavato, hoc subtransverso-globoso). Ligida vLx membi-anacea, ampla, subquadrata, apice 

 leviter dilatato subcorneo integro. Pedes (X. 4/) longiusculi subcontractiles graciles : tibiis 

 intus calcari apicali niinuto arniatis : tarsis (vix pseudoti-imcris, nam articulus secundus baud 

 bUobus est, — tantum, una cum articulo primo, subtus productus et pilosus) 4-articulatis, articulo 

 primo longiusculo, secundo paulo breviore, tertio parvo (nee minutissimo), ultimo longissimo 

 subclavato. 



The little assemblage of insects usually kno-^VTi as the Clypeastres (but which I 

 would rather designate the Corylophidce) is one of the most interesting within the 

 whole range of the Coleoptera ; and whilst, on the one hand, it is manifestly akia to 

 the Coccinellce, it nevertheless makes an almost equal approach, on the other, towards 

 the modifications attendant on Leiodes, — the passage to them being very gradually 

 effected by means of such genera as Glceosoma and OrtJwpenis, in which (although 

 their tetramerous feet, and the majority of theii- details, show them to be more 

 immediately related to the present family) the sub-exserted head, and the glabrous 

 convexer bodies, in conjunction with the minuteness of the second articulation of 

 the clava*, and the less produced edges of the pronotum, are abundantly sufficient 

 to betray an Anisotomideous tendency. The simple tarsi, moreover, and the great 

 instability in the number of the antennal joints, of the species which compose it 

 {Clypeaster alone possessing eleven, whUst ArthroUps, Sericoderus and Gloeosoma 

 have ten, and Corrjlopliiis and Orthoperus merely nine), are even further suggestive 

 of a movement iia that dii-ection, — a like variation, as regards the latter, con- 

 stituting one of the most prominent features of those groups. Although thus 

 however displaying, to a certain extent, points of similarity both with the Fseiido- 

 trimera and the Anisotomidce, it exhibits at the same time many structural 

 peculiarities of its own (amongst which the narrow apicaUy-denticvilated outer, 

 and the obsolete inner, lobes of its maxillae, its thickened fusiform palpi, and its 

 subcrenulated mandibles are perhaps the most important) ; whilst even externally 

 the members would seem to be no less clearly defined, — since their diminu.tive bulk 

 and eminently ciu'sorial habits (in which they recede from the Coccinellw entirely), 

 in connection with their enormously developed wings and the expanded margin of 

 then* prothorax, combine in giiing them a very remarkable character (in some 

 respects even approximating the Trichopterygia, with which indeed Sericoderus 

 especially has much in common). 



Touching the genera inter se, there is but little fear of confounding theii' distinc- 

 tions, — each of them being particularly well marked. Apart from obscurer 

 minutiae (which -^vill be best gathered by a reference to the Plate), Clypeaster may 

 be readily known by its more parallel, or oblong, outline, less abbreviated legs, 



* This reduction in size of tlie second joint of the antennal club (or the fourth one fi'om the extre- 

 mity), which constitutes so marked a featm-e in the Anisotomidce, and ^vhich, as above stated, is strongly 

 expressed in Qloeosoma and Orthoperus, is also very distinctly iudicated in Coryloplius, — a circumstance 

 which is worthy of remark, since that genus may be said to be the most typical one of the present family. 



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