176 MODERN CLASSIFICATION OF INSECTS. 



sentatlons given of this part by Curtis and Aube not being sufficiently 

 precise). Some of these insects present several remarkable sexual 

 peculiarities, respecting which authors do not appear to be agreed. 

 Thus, one sex^ in Areopagus, has the anterior tibiae emarginate, and 

 the basal joints of the antennae angulated, vi^hich Curtis regards as in- 

 dicating the male, and Denny as the female. In one sex of Tychus 

 the fifth joint of the antennae is dilated. In the Continental genus 

 Ctenistes Reichenb. the three terminal joints of the maxillary palpi 

 are produced into a long and acute spine, which is supposed to be 

 sexual. From the recent investigations of Erichson {Kaf. Mark 

 Brcmdb.Yi.26S., and Weigmann ArcJdv. 1837, p. 30.), Aube {3Ion. 

 Pselaph.), and De Motchoulsky (Guerin, Mag. de Zool. pi. 171-), it 

 would also appear that uncertainty exists as to the sexual or specific 

 characters of Bryaxis sanguinea ; Erichson regarding B. laminata (dis- 

 tinguished by its singular metasternum) as a mere variety. 



These minute insects are generally found during the winter and 

 spring months in moss ; they are also occasionally taken in the sweep- 

 ing-net off grass, and are supposed to feed upon Acari. They run 

 and fly with agility ; when in motion they make use of their long 

 palpi as instruments of touch, whence the origin of their family 

 name. I have taken nearly all my specimens of the G. Euplectus on 

 the wing. 



The Continental genus Claviger Preysl. {Jig- 17. 6. Claviger foveo- 

 latus Mull.) appears to be the most imperfectly organised of all the 

 known Coleoptera : the antennee are only 6-jointed {fig. J 7. 6.) ; the 

 eyes appear to be wanting ; the maxillary palpi are without articu- 

 lations, and some other parts of the mouth appear to be obsolete. 

 They are generally found in the nests of Formica flava*; and M. 

 Wesmael, to whom I am indebted for specimens, has observed that 

 the ants guard them with care, occasionally taking them up in their 

 jaws when they would escape ; and he considers it not improbable that 

 they secrete a fluid, analogous to that of the Aphides^ from the setee 

 at the extremity of the elytra {Encycl. Metliod. vol. x.). Such, in- 

 deed, is also the statement of Muller (who has published an interest- 

 ing memoir on this species in Germar's Magazin der Entomologie, 

 v. iii. t. 2.), and by whom the mode of proceeding adopted by the ants 



* As the Form, flava is a common British species, it is not improbable that the 

 Claviger may be discovered to be indigenous by carefully examining the nests of this 

 or some other species of ant. 



