Bl/rthidif.] CLAVICORNIA, 365 



BYRRHIDJE. 



This family contains about twenty genera, and a hundred and fifty 

 si^ecies; they are widely distributed both in tropical and temperate 

 countries, and a certain number are found as far north as Alaska and 

 Siberia ; they are oval, convex insects, with the head retracted in all the 

 ;jenera, except Nosodendron, and the antennae usually 11-jointed, rnrely 

 10-jointed, the last joints forming a more or less elongate club in ail 

 our genera; la' rum distinct; anterior coxal cavities open behind; 

 prosternum somewhat prolonged behind; mesosternum small, metastcrnum 

 short and broad ; elytra covering abdomen ; abdomen with Hve segments, 

 the first three being sometimes connate ; legs short and stout, strongly 

 retractile, tibiae dilated, and usually altogether or in part sulcate 

 externally for the reception of the tarsi ; tarsi 5-jointed, with the last joint 

 elongate, heteromerous in Aspidipliorus {Conipora) : with regard to the 

 latter genus I have followed Mr. Matthews in placing it with the 

 Byrrhidse, rather than together with S2:ilirndus in a separate family 

 SphindidfE, as is done by Reitter and others, as the formation of the 

 external skeleton seems certainly to prove its alliance with the present 

 family ; at the same time its position can hardly be said to be quite 

 settled, and it does not quite agree with the Byrrhidfe in all the 

 chaiacters above mentioned; Thomson regards it as a separate family 

 which he calls Coniporidaj ; many authors place the genus together with 

 Sphindus under the Bostrychidse. Limnirlms is also regarded by some 

 auihors as belonging to a separate family Limnichidae. Great confusion 

 is now caused by some of the continental authors, Avho apply the name 

 Byrrhida? to Anohium {Byrrltus, Geofi'.) and its allies, and alter the 

 name of Byrrhidse as it at present stands to Ci;^telidae; in the catalogue 

 of Hey den, Reitter, and Weise there seems to be a redudio ad ubmrdnm., 

 as on page 90 ByrrluiS is retained as the generic name of B. pilula 

 and its allies under the Cistelidse, whereas the Byrrhida? on page 122 

 do not contain a genus Byrrhus at all. 



The larvse of the Byrrbidae, as typified by B. pilula, are flpsby, and may be recog- 

 nized by tbe huge size of the prothorax, and of the last two segments of the abdomen ; 

 tbe bead is corneous, with two ocelli on each side, and the antenna; are very short 

 3- or 2-jointed ; tbe piotboiax is as long as the two following segments united, and is 

 covered with a hard corneous scutum ; tbe abdominal segments are nine in number, 

 the ninth being furnished with two appendages wbich are used for progression ; tlie 

 meso- and metathorax and tbe first savcn abdominal segments are membranous, and 

 tbe last two are harder, very large, and deflexed ; the legs are moderate in length, 

 with very short tarsi terminated by a simple claw ; the larva of B. pilula is figured by 

 Wcstwood (Classific. i. 175, fig. 17, 17), and also by Chapuis et Candeze (I.e., 

 PI. iii. f. 4); it is found in the ground under turf, or crawling on the surface j it is 

 about three-quarters of an inch long. 



(The genus Nosodendron, represented by the single European genus 

 N. fascicular e, used to be included in all our British lists, on the autho- 

 rity of specimens taken by Loach in Devonshire, and Hope at Southend, 

 Essex ; it is figured by Curtis (British Entomology, fig. 246); fi, m the 



