terminal joint of the palpi, which is dilated, 

 compressed, and truncated at tip. Another 

 kindred genus, Omalisus, of Geoffroy, is in like 

 manner destitute of the curious power of giving 

 light, but the mouth is not rostrated, the second 

 and third joints of the antennae are very short, 

 and the head is only in part covered by the 

 thorax. 



Fabricius separated these insects from Lam- 

 PYRis, under the name of Lycus, (au««5,) a word, 

 which, according to Olivier, was employed by 

 Herzychius to designate a species of spider; by 

 Atheneus for a fish ; and by Aristotle for a kind 

 of bird. But the word was commonly used by 

 the Greeks, and by Homer himself, to indicate 

 the wolf. 



In respect to form, the body is, in many 

 instances, somewhat linear, that is, having the 

 sides approaching to parallelism; but in the L. 

 htissimus, Fabr. of Africa, and the L. palliatus, 

 Fabr. of the Cape of Good Hope, the elytra 

 are so much dilated as to give the species an 

 orbicular appearance ; whilst in other species, as 

 the L. fasciatus, Fabr. of Cayenne, these substi- 

 tutes for anterior wings are greatly dilated, only 

 towards their posterior extremities. Many have 

 this dilatation, which is more particularly observ- 



PLATE XXI. 



