LYCUS. 



GENERIC CHARACTER. 



Head retracted; antennae approximate, much 

 compressed, more or less serrated; mouth small, 

 produced into a short rostrum; maxillary palpi 

 much longer than the labiales, terminal joint 

 triangular, truncated; mandibles at tip, entire 

 and acute : elytra thin and flexible, nearly of 

 equal breadth, or much enlarged towards the tip ; 

 thorax receiving and covering the head, rounded 

 before ; penultimate joint of the tarsi bilobated. 



OBSERVATIONS. 



These insects are somewhat similar in their 

 appearance to the well knowm "Fire-fly," whose 

 scintillations, on a summer's evening, are scarcely 

 less abundant than the lights of the firmament, 

 which they feebly, and but for a moment, rival. 

 But Lycus is not endowed with the property of 

 yielding light, and it is further distinguished from 

 Lampyris by the somewhat elongated mouth, 

 eyes of moderate size, and by the form of the 



plate xxi. 



