COLEOPTEROUS INSECTS. 177 



MALACHIUS MARGINELLUS. 



PLATE VIII. FIG. 5. 

 Fabricins Olivier, ii. No. 27, pi. 3, fig. 18, a, b. 



This insect affords an example of the family Me- 

 lyridce, which is characterised by short and filiform 

 palpi, mandibles notched at the point, a narrow 

 elongated body, undivided joints in the tarsi, and 

 claws furnished with a single tooth. The genus 

 Malachius* generally has the joints of the antennae 

 a little produced on the inner side ; the thorax is 

 wider than the head, and has a vesicle, capable of 

 being dilated and contracted, beneath each of the 

 anterior angles. The radical joints of the antennae 

 are often irregular in the male. The species are 

 numerous, amounting to more than a hundred, but 

 only fifteen of these occur in Britain. They are 

 chiefly European, but a few are found in every 

 quarter of the world. The species above refer- 

 red to (which is represented as it appears under 

 a powerful magnifier) is a native of France and 

 England. It is of a brassy-green colour, with the 

 sides of the thorax and tips of the elytra of a blood 

 red. The under parts of the body and legs are like- 

 wise green, and the antennae black. 



Another tribe of malacodermatous insects consti- 



From ftaXoiKix, referring to the softness of the body. 

 M 



