TRIMEROUS FUNGUS-BEETLES. 181 



A. Body elongate and parallel ; clab of antennae 5 or 6-jointed; tarsi 4-jointed; palpi not dilated; 



eyes finely granulated Languria . 



A A. Body oval ; club of antennae 3-jointed, rarely 4-jointed. 



B. Tarsi 5 jointed; palpi not dilated ; form oblong oval Dacnk. 



B B. Tarsi 4-jolnted ; 3d joint of maxillary palpi strongly dilated ; form oval or short oval. 



C. Eyes large and coarsely granulated Ischyrus. 



C C. Eyes moderate, finely granulated ; size small Triplax. 



Languria, Latr., contains about a dozen l!^. A. species. The most com- 

 mon is the L. hicolor, Fab., upwards of a third of an inch in length, 

 blue-black except the thorax, which is dull-red with a black spot on the 

 middle. The L. 3Iozardi, Latr., is similar but smaller ; the elytra have 

 a greenish tint, the antennae and thighs are reddish at base, and the 

 thorax is without the black spot on the disk. Dacne, Latr., contains 

 five species of very unequal size. The name is derived from the Greek 

 dalcno — to corrode. The Dacne Jieros, of Say, is two-thirds of an inch in 

 length or upwards, black with two broad, dull-red bands across the ely- 

 tra. The D. fasciata, Fab., is similar, but only about half an inch long, 

 and the bands are of a lighter and brighter color. The D. 4:maculata, 

 Say, is only about one-tenth of an inch long, black, with two red spots 

 on each elytron. Ischyrus, Lacord., — a term meaning robust — contains 

 three species, the largest of which, the J. •i-jmnctatus, Oliv., is not 

 uncommon. It is about a third of an inch long, light orange-red varied 

 with black, and with a transverse series of four black dots on the 

 thorax. 



The genus Triplax, of Paykull, — a term meaning threefold, in 

 allusion probably to the three-jointed club of the antennae — is much 

 more numerous in species than the others. Mr. Crotch enumerates 

 eighteen species, a part of which he has placed separately under the 

 generic term Cyrtotriplax — the prefix meaning convex — on account of 

 their short ovate form, and the body not strongly punctured beneath. 

 This distinction had already been made by Fabricius, who gave to those 

 short convex species the name Tritoma, which seems to have been 

 abandoned on account of its confused synonomy. The species of Tri- 

 plax are all small, being between one-eighth and two- tenths of an inch 

 in length, and variegated with black and red. Cyphcrotylus, Cr., con- 

 tains a single large and striking species, the Boisduvali, Chev. (Fig. 90), 

 tolerably common in the Rocky mountain region of Colorado, where Mr. 

 Eiley has found its larva feeding on tree-fungi. 



Some of the species indicated are closely allied and are perhaps only 

 varieties. 



Family LXIII. ENDOMYCHID^. 



This is a family of small extent, named from the genus EndomycTius, 

 Paykull, a name derived from the Greek endon — ivithin', and muchos — a 

 concealed place — probably referring to the concealed habitations of these 



