214 MODERN CLASSTFICATION OF INSECTS. 



Hopei, Kollar.) With the exception of a very iew species, these 

 insects are exclusively confined to the tropical regions of the New 

 World. Out of eighty species belonging to Mr. MacLeay, only two or 

 three are extra tropical, and none from higher lattitudes than 40°. 

 The BraziHan Cyclocephalae are abundantly found in flowers, C. 

 nielanocephala frequenting those of the Datura arborea in the month 

 of December ; they also fly round the trees in the evening, and hide 

 themselves beneath the roots by day. The Areodae and Pelidnotse 

 are found upon leaves and flowers. P. micans frequents the flowers 

 of Geonoma, a genus of Palms, in the month of December (i. e. the 

 middle of the Brazilian summer.) The species of Macraspis are 

 found in the morning upon the leaves, and fly by day round the trees 

 with a humming noise, and gnawing the flowers. The Rutela? are 

 similar in their habits, often appearing in vast numbers. 



The singular southern European genus Cselodera (Pachypus Latr.') 

 is remarkable for the anomalous nature of the female, which is of a 

 large size, with the abdomen greatly swollen, and which has been 

 described as destitute of organs of flight (Feisthamel, in Ann. Soc^ 

 Ent. Fr. 1837, p. 260.). M. V. Audouin has, however, exhibited 

 to me his dissections of this insect, in which he has discovered the 

 rudiments of the elytra concealed beneath the prothorax. 



Two of the most remarkable species in this family are the Chrysophora 

 chrysochlora Latr., a splendid golden-coloured insect, discovered in 

 Peru by Humboldt, having the hind legs of the males of a very great 

 size, and the posterior tibiae produced into a strong spine. At certain 

 periods of the year it is found in considerable numbers. The other 

 is a South American insect, figured long since by Francillon, under the 

 name of the Kanguroo Beetle, Scaraba^us macropus, in which the 

 size of the hind legs is still more extraordinary. This insect has 

 recently been received from America, and proves to be the male of 

 Mr. Kirby's genus Chrysina. The Chrysophora (or rather n. g.) 

 Kirbii Gray, in Griffith An. K. from Brazil, and the Heterosternus 

 buprestoides Dupont, figured in the Mag. de Zoologie, from IMexico, 

 are also especially interesting. This family is very interesting as 

 regards the natural distribution of the Linnasan Scaraba?i. Whilst, 

 on the one hand, it is so intimately allied to the Dynastidae in the 

 general structure of the mouth that Latreille has united it therewith, 

 under the name of Xylophili ; on the other hand it very nearly 

 approximates to many of the Fabrician Melolonthae, and especially to 



