COLEOPTERA. CETONIID.T.. 223 



species of Cetoniae are found upon leaves. The larva; feed upon moist 

 rotten wood, almost reduced to a state of decomposition. Those 

 of Aleurostictus variabilis have been found by Messrs. Griesbach 

 in rotten oak-trees ; they have thus been enabled to rear many of 

 these rare beetles. The most common British species is the beautiful 

 Rose Chafer, Cetonia aurata, which abounds upon the roses, and es- 

 pecially upon the flowers of the privet in the south of England. Its 

 larvae are often found in ants' nests. This family is at once dis- 

 tinguished from all the preceding families of Thalerophagous Peta- 

 locera by the membranaceous structure of the mandibles and maxilla?. 

 These insects are very widely dispersed, but more especially 

 frequent tropical climates. The genera Trichius and Cetonia, as 

 now restricted, are found in all quarters of the Avorld, whereas the 

 Gymnetes are almost exclusively South American, and the Macro- 

 notae are chiefly Javanese. Tropical Africa is inhabited by the gigantic 

 and very rare Goliaths, in which the front of the head is produced 

 into two anterior and two lateral horns, and which arc distinguished 

 from every other species in the family by their strongly toothed 

 maxillae, indicating a mode of life at variance with that of the ordinary 

 Cetonite. (See Drury, Exot. Entomol, 2d edit, by Westwood ; Klug, 

 in Ermans Reise am Erde ; Hope, Coleopt. Manual.) Messrs. Gory 

 and Percheron have illustrated the species of this family in their 

 splendid Monographie des Cetoincs, t\ow completed. Latreille divides 

 this family into three sections — Trichides, Goliathides, and Cetoni- 

 ides, distinguished by the structure of the mentum and mcsosternum. 



The remaining subtribe of Pentamerous beetles, which I have 

 named Priocerata * (Serricornes Latreille), comprises several 

 families of insects, having the antennae short or but of moderate length, 

 very rarely thickened at the tips, being generally of equal thickness 

 throughout, or more slender at the extremities, and often toothed, 

 serrated, or pectinated [fig, 23. 2.), especially in the male sex. The 

 outer maxillary lobe is not palpiform {fig. 23. 3.), so that the insects 

 have only two maxillary, and two labial, palpi, these organs being 

 generally short and robust ; the body is commonly elongate and 

 narrow, and the elytra (with ?e\v exceptions) entirely cover the 

 abdomen. 



* Vide p. 178. ante. 



