BEETLES. 



397 



Fig. 4«S. — Dirirliix 

 purpuratua. 



About eighty-five Xoith American species of rlescriiied Carabida', which are con- 

 siderably flattened, and resemlile, to a certain extent, tliose of Lehin, but are not 

 usually as vividly colored, and are o-enerally somewhat larger, are 

 included in the genus Plafynus. Tlie entire coloration of P. ciqyri- 

 pennis, a North American species about 0.3 of an inch long, is metallic 

 green with reddish reflections. P. octopunctatus, which is ccnnmon 

 in New England, although not as common as P. ci(pripiiu(is, is simi- 

 lar in size and coloration to the latter sjiecics, but has four deeply im- 

 jiressed punctures arranged hjngitudiiially near the iinier margin of 

 each elytron. Many of the sjiecics of this genus are black. Dift'erinii- 

 systematically from Plati/nns, in having the claws more or less serrate, fio. 4S5. —Cainthus 

 IS talaflius. In tlie last two genera tlie elytra are obiKjucly suiuate : 



liut in LiirliitiijiJionis. iti which L. rinjotius from Urazij is figured, 

 the elytra arc round at the tip. 



Durp/tfs comprises about twenty species of C'olcoptci-a, ail of 

 which are North American. These beetles have the pronotum flat- 

 tened, with a few slight wrinkles and an upturned margin ; the elytra 

 are striate. D. sjilendi'diig, from the southern United States, is over 

 an incli long, and bhick with cop]iery-bronze elytra. D. purpuratus^ 

 •X ]iurplish-black sjieeies about an inch long; ]). tlongatus and Z*. 

 i/lh(tattu% both black, and 0.7 and 0.8 of an inch long respectively, 

 are all found on the .\tl;nitic slope as far north as Massachusetts. 

 Dr. G. II. Horn has dcscrilied the larva of a species of DicceluSjpos- 

 siblv of Z*. diliitiitKx. The bodv of the larva is dark greenisli lilue and 

 semi-opaque, its head being reddish yellow. Tiie larva is narrowed to- 

 ward both ends ; and the anal segment is armed with two slender inward- 

 curved jn'ocesses, between wliich tlie .anus extends as a corneous tube 

 equal in length to an ali<l<)min.al segment. Its antenna', although, as is 

 usual in this family, four-jointed, are about one-tliird the length of the 

 body. The legs increase in" lengtii from the first to the third pair. 

 Pupation, which takes place beneath logs or in the ground, lasts but a ^'ni-^sT.— 



^ ^ ^ r- ' if^j- btpustufaius. 



week. Nearly related, systematically, to Dica^bis is Badififer. P. 



hipiustulcttus^ from Europe, is about O.-J of an inch long, brown, with black head and 



two curved black lines on each elytron. Its larva has lieen described by Schiodtc. 



Tiie genera Pterostichus, A/i/nni, PJrarf/i )■//■■<, and Po.raiidrus, each 

 contain numerous sjiecies; lint tlu'y are separated with ditficulty, and 

 lint little is known of their life history. IMost of the species of these 

 genera arc black. A few have metallic colors, or vary from brown to 

 red. Allied to these genera is Zahnis, of wliich Z. gibbvs has already 

 been mentioned on account of its destructiveness to crops. A)nara 

 ■nitiilata, another European species, is said to eat both flowers and leaves 

 of the shephevd's-pnrse {Capsella biirsa-paMoris). To this same group 

 of genera belong Catadrotnns, of which the Javanese C. tenehrioides is 

 figured on the plate. 



Anophthalmi/t!, already mentioned as a genus of lilind cave beetles, contains about 

 fifty species, of which seven are North American, lieing foimd in the caves of the 

 Ohio Valley, and the rest Eurojiean. The first North Aniei-ican species described was 

 A. tellkampifi i , from Mammoth Cave, in Kentucky. It is about 0.3 of an inch long, 



\ 



Fig. 48S. —Ptcros- 

 tichus htcuhjan- 

 fhts. 



