392 



MODERN CLASSIFICATION OF INSECTS. 



Fig. 49. 



The head is small, or but of moderate size ; the mandibles are short, 

 and dentate at the tips ; the maxillas are terminated b}' a corneous 

 hook; the palpi are terminated by a large joint, which in those of the 

 maxillse is very large, compressed, and sublunate (j*?^. 49. 2.), 



These insects are chiefly exotic, and but little is known of their 

 habits ; from the structure of the mouth, it is, however, conjectured 

 that they feed upon vegetable matter ; and the British species, whose 

 economy has been observed, reside in fungi and boleti, growing upon 

 the decaying trunks of trees, and under rotten bark, &c. 



Count G. Fischer de Waldheim in his Oryctographie du Gouverne- 

 ment de Moscou (folio, 1830), has figured an insect (fig. 49. 7.) under 

 the name of Hallomenus fasciatus, but which from the form and 

 colour of the body, the structure of the tarsi, and the clavation of the 

 antennae, appears to belong to the genus Tritoma. He has also given 

 two figures of its larva, which bear a considerable resemblance to those 

 of the Chrysomelidas, having a thick, fleshy, spotted body, narrowed 

 towards the tail, with a small head, and six short legs : the body is 

 terminated by two short spines {Jig. 49. 8.). The genus Tritoma is 

 placed by Mr. Stephens in the family Anisotomidse (having been 

 removed from the Erotylidse in conjunction with Phalacrus and its 

 allies) ; but it is certainly most nearly allied to the Erotylidae. Mr. 

 Curtis has formed it into a distinct family, Tritomidae. M. Lacordaire 

 has given the following account of the larva of Erotylus surinamensis. 

 {Ann. Soc. Entomol. de France, torn. i. p. 364.) This larva resides in 

 boleti in Guiana, upon or in the neighbourhood of which the perfect 

 insects of this genus are to be met with. The larva of E. surina- 

 mensis is more than half an inch long, slightly swollen at the posterior 

 extremity, white, and destitute of asperities, except the first segment, 



