40 



PiMELIA TeNBRIO, LlU. 



These Heteromera are proper to the countries situated round the 

 basin of the Mediterranean, to western and southern Asia, and to 

 Africa. They are not found in India, or at least none have as yet 

 been discovered there. 



Some species, usually more elongated, have the mentum exposed, 

 and the antennae slightly and insensibly enlarged at the extremity ; 

 the three last joints do not form a club, divided into two equal 

 portions, the last of Avhich is composed of the tenth and last joint con- 

 founded together. 



In some of these, the abdomen is proportionally wider and more 

 voluminous, and the legs are less elongated ; the anterior tibiae are 

 in the form of a reversed triangle, elongated, and have the exterior 

 angle of their extremity prolonged ; the spurs are stout and the tarsi 

 short. 



M. Fischer — Entomog. Russ. Imp. — has divided them into three 

 genera, Pimelia, Platyopus, and Diesia, but their characters, being 

 only founded on the greater or less projection of the last joint of the 

 antennee and the dentations of the anterior tibise, do not appear to us 

 sufficiently determinate. The eleventh and last joint of the antennae 

 is most distinct in the Dicsiae. The anterior tibiae are much dentated 

 exteriorly in Platyopa, where the thorax forms a transversal square, 

 the base of the elytra is straight, and the exterior angles or the 

 shoulders slightly project. Among the Pimelia, properly so called of 

 this author, or those in which the eleventh and last joint of the an- 

 tennse unites, or is almost confounded with the preceding one, where 

 the thorax is almost semilunar and convex, and the abdomen neai'ly 

 ovoid or globular, is placed the 



P. 2-punctata, Fab. ; Oliv. Ill, 59, i, 1. Length eight lines ; 

 glossy-black ; thorax granulated, with two large punctures in 

 the middles, united in some individuals in a transverse line ; ely- 

 tra granulated, each with four elevated lines, the lateral carina 

 included, not visibly dentated, of which the two inner ones are 

 shorter ; suture elevated. Common on the shores of the Mediter- 

 ranean. 



The Tenehrio muricatus, L., is a different species — Schcenh., 

 Synon. Insect, I, tab. Ill, 9. 



P. coronata, Oliv., lb., II, 17- Fifteen lines in length ; black- 

 ish ; covered with reddish-brown hairs ; a range of posteriorly 

 curved spines on the lateral carina of each elytron. 



M. Payraudeau has discovered in Corsica a new species — Pay- 

 raudii — allied to the first, but with a more elongated abdomen 

 and more strongly granvilated elytra, on which the two inner 

 elevated lines are almost effaced. 



In other species, — Trachyderma, Lat., — the abdomen is propor- 

 tionally narrower and more elongated, and frequently much com- 

 pressed laterally ; the legs are long, and the tibiae, the anterior ones 



