Mr. C. J. Gahan — Xotes on Clericlae. G7 



Subfamily Cortnetix.e. 



The principal character of this subfamily is the great 

 reduction in size of the fourth joint of the tarsi; this joint 

 is never lohed beneath and is usually so small as to be barely 

 visible between the lobes of the third joint. The first joint 

 undergoes the same modifications as in the first subfamily, 

 being sometimes long and distinctly visible from above, 

 while in other cases it is quite small and almost wholly 

 hidden below the base of the second joint, the tarsi in such 

 cases appearing to be three-jointed. With very few excep- 

 tions the prothorax is marginate or carinate at the sides in 

 the genera of this subfamily. 



Two groups, the Enopliiui and the Corynetini, have been 

 distinguished by Lacordaire, based upon differences in the 

 form of the antennae. Herr Reitter in adopting the same 

 groups (' Bestimmungs-Tabelle der Cleriden') distinguishes 

 them chiefly by the number of visible sternites in the abdo- 

 men, the Enopliiui having six and the Corynetinae only five 

 sternites visible. 



It is not clear from the arrangement in his recently 

 published ' Catalogue of the European Coleoptera.' whether 

 Herr Reitter regards the Corynetinae as a family or as a 

 subfamily ; but it is quite evident that he considers the 

 number of visible sternites in the abdomen to be a matter of 

 primary importance, since he there includes in the Corynetinae 

 only such genera as were previously placed in his second 

 group. If the additional sternite were at the base of the 

 abdomen, there might be some slight justification for this 

 view. But it is not. The sixth sternite, when visible, is at 

 the apex, a condition which crops up in isolated genera or 

 groups in various families of beetles. Even in the Cleridae 

 the character would be very difficult of application, for there 

 are many genera of true Clerinae in which there is so little 

 of the sixth sternite visible that one would be justified in 

 describing them as having only five visible sternites to the 

 abdomen. 



Although I consider the characters on which Lacordaire 

 based his two groups to be unimportant, I cannot at present 

 suggest any better arrangement. The introduction, how- 

 ever, of the Phyllobaenini into this subfamily will necessitate 

 some slight rearrangement of the genera. The genus 

 Pelonium, Spin., requires to be split up, containing as it 

 does at the present time species with finely facetted eyes 

 and coarselv facetted eves, with simple tarsal claws and with 



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