276 



MODERN CLASSIFICATION OF INSECTS. 



Fig. 31. 



maxillary palpi, in one sex, which, from analogy, may be considered 

 as the male, are singularly developed* (see Jig. 31. 2. maxilla ; 30. 3. 

 labium) ; but the abdomen in these individuals is terminated by an 

 elongated, flattened, and attenuated instrument, similar to that pos- 

 sessed by the female Cerambycidae, &c., for the purpose of depositing 

 their eggs. The sexual differences have not hitherto been noticed, 

 although Dr. Perty states that the males are much rarer than the 

 females of the Brazilian species. Latreille mentions an individual 

 preserved in amber, or, perhaps, more probably, gum anime, in the 

 collection at the Jardin des Plantes. 



The genus Rhysodes Lati\, which has been placed in this family, 

 together with Clinidum K., appear to me to be intermediate between 

 Parandra, Passandra, on the one hand, and the Brentida;. They are 

 also closely allied to some of the Cucujidae, as I have endeavoured to 

 prove in a memoir upon these insects, inserted in the ZoologicalJour- 

 nal, No. 18. Perty states that two Brazilian species of llhysodes are 

 found under bark and in rotten trunks of trees. 



The anomalous American genus Cupes (of which I have published 

 the characters of a second species, Zool. Journ. No. 20.) has also 

 been referred to this family by Latreille. Its general appearance 

 and characters are, however, widely distinct from those of the true 

 Lymexylonidse. 



* The hirsute slender appendage, arising from the base of the flabellate portion 

 of the palpi (and which Messrs. Kirby and Spence regarded merely as an appendage 

 of the terminal joint) appears to nie to correspond with the terminal joint itself, the 

 flabellate portion being the extraordinarily developed third joint: this opinion is con- 

 firmed by the analogy exhibited between the palpi of Atraetocerus and Lymexylon. 



