176 SERRICORNIA. [ Drilus’ 
(referred to by Mr. Rye, Ent. Monthly Mag. vii. 59), it is stated that 
the female of Drilus flavescens is not only foundin Helix nemoralis, but 
in several other species as well, and that a good way to take specimens 
is to collect in February and March all the snails found in gardens, and 
to make with a penknife an opening at the extremity of the first spiral 
turn of the shell, opposite the mouth; if fragments stuck together in a 
kind of spider’s web be then seen, there is no doubt of the presence of 
the insect, 
LIMEXYLONIDZ. 
This family contains four genera, of which two are represented in 
Europe; with the exception of Micromalthus, a North American genus, 
they may at once be known by the very large flabellate maxillary palpi 
of the male, which give the insect a very peculiar appearance ; the 
antenne are 11-jointed, and are inserted at the sides of the head, which 
is narrowed behind; they are either serrate or subfiliform ; the anterior 
coxal cavities are open behind, and all the coxe are contiguous; in 
our genera the elytra entirely, or almost entirely, cover the abdomen, 
which latter consists of five or six free ventral segments; the legs are 
slender and moderately long, and the tarsi are 5-jointed and very 
elongate ; in the exotic genus Atractocerus the elytra are much abbre- 
viated. 
The larve of Limeaylon and Hylecetus are figured by Westwood (Classification, 
vol. i. p. 269, fig. 30, 19, 23); they are rather peculiar in their appearance, the pro- 
thoracic segment being much enlarged and dilated into a hood-like process, which is 
larger in the latter than in the former genus; in Hylecetws the last segment is large 
and considerably reflexed, and bears a long upright horn-like process, which is fur- 
nished with sete on sides and apex; in the larva of Limexylon the last segment is 
produced into a large half-upright obtuse lobe, and the hood-like process of the 
prothoracic segment, as above mentioned, is smaller. 
The position of the family has been considerably disputed ; many 
authors have placed it near the Bostrichide, but it is now apparently 
considered as coming close to the Cleride, and in the catalogue of 
Heyden, Reitter, and Weise it is placed as a tribe of that family; in 
several exotic species of Drilide the palpi are very extraordinary, and 
on this account the Limexylonide and Drilide would seem to be 
related, and the best position for the former family appears to be 
between the Drilide and the Cleride. 
I. Antenne shorter, feebly serrate in male, strongly serrate 
in female; scutellum with a raised carina in front. . . . Hy3Eca@rus, Lar. 
II. Antenne longer, subfiliform in male, very feebly serrate 
in female; scutellum without raised carina . . . . . . LimExyton, F, 
HYLECGTwWS, Latreille. (Hlateroides, Schiffer.) 
This genus contains about a dozen species, of which two are found in 
Europe, and the remainder in North and South America, Java, and the 
