COLEOPTERA. 23 



The alimentary canal of the Melolontha vulgaris, according to 

 M. Leon Dufour— Ann. des Sc. Nat., Ill, p. 234— is not so long as 

 that of Copris, bnt its parietcs are shorter. The chylific ventricle is 

 wholly destitute of papilhie, and exhibits beautiful fringes on its sur- 

 face, which are formed by hepatic vessels. The sm;ill intestine is 

 followed by a species of colour furnished Avith internal valvulae under 

 the form of small, triangular, and imbricated pouches, arranged in 

 six longitudinal series, sejiarated by as many muscular cords. M. 

 Dufour has frequently found these pouches filled with a green, vege- 

 table pulp. The structure of the biliary vessels is extremely deli- 

 cate ; they form multiplex flexures, and several of them, right and 

 left, are furnished with little fringe-like filaments. The copulating 

 armature of the male is extremely thick, very hard, terminated by 

 two stout hooks, and presents an articulation near its posterior third, 

 which facilitates its motion. Each testis is an agglomeration of six 

 orbicular, and as if umbilicated, spermatic capsules, each one fur- 

 nished with a separate, tubular duct, resembling the kind of leaf de- 

 signated by botanists as peltate or umbilicated. 



These Insects occasionally appear in such numbers that they 

 speedily destroy the leaves of considerable tracts of forest. The 

 larvae are not less injurious in our gardens. It is commonly called 

 the Ver blanc. 



M. villosa, Oliv., lb. I, 4. Distinguished from the preceding 

 species by the club of its antennae, Avhich consists of five leaflets 

 in the males, and four in the females; body brown, more or less 

 dark, sometimes reddish above; three grey lines on the thorax 

 formed by down; scutellum and under part of the body fur- 

 nished with a similar down, which forms spots on the sides of 

 the abdomen *. 

 Now the antennal club in both sexes never presents more than 

 three leaflets. The 



Rhisotrogus, Lat. 



Closely resembles Melolontha in the general form of the body, that 

 of the labrum and tarsi ; but the antennae, which consist of nine or 

 ten joints, have but three leaflets in the club f . In 



Ceraspis, Lepel. and Serv. 

 There are two small longitudinal incisures in the middle of the 

 posterior margin of the thorax, the space comprised between them 

 forming a tooth, the extremity of which is received into a corre- 

 sponding emargination in the scutellum. The antennae are composed 



* Add M. holohuca, Fisch., Entom. Russ. Imp., II, xxviii, 3 ; — M. Anketeri, 

 Ejusd., 4; — M. pilosa, Fab.; Fisch., lb., 9; — M. occidentaUs, Fab,, &c. See 

 Schocnh., Synon. Insect. I, 3, p. 162. 



f As it is not always an easy matter to ascertain exactly the number of joints 

 that immediately precede the club of the antennae, I unite the penus I had named 

 AmphimaUa, where those orgtins consist of but nine joints, to Rhisotrogus, The 

 M. sohtilialis, pint, serrata, fervida, atra, aquinoctialis, rufcomis, &.C., of Fabricius, 

 The third joint appears to be decomposed. 



