COLEOPTERA. 49 



AsiDA, ia/.* 



Next come Blapsides, with an oval and slightly elongated bod)'-, 

 in which the lateral curve of the elytra is narrow, and extends but 

 little underneath ; in which the thorax is always transversal, al- 

 most square or trapezoidal, and the lateral edges arcuated ; and 

 which are still more remarkable for the sexual ditference in their 

 tarsi, the two or four <interior ones being most dilated in the 

 males f. 



These Insects frequent sandy localities. The twe anterior tibiae 

 are usually wider, dilated triangularly at the extremity, and fitted 

 for digging. 



Here the anterior edge of the head is always emarginated. The 

 tAvo anterior tarsi of the males are alone manifestly wider, or more 

 dilated than the following ones. 



Pedinus, Lat. 



M. Megcrle and Count Dejean have divided them into several 

 other subgenera, but without giving their characters, 



Those, where the males have the four first joints of the anterior 

 tarsi of the same width, with the radical triangidar, the three follow- 

 ing transversal and almost equal, all the tibiae narrow and elongated, 

 the thorax narrowed posteriorly and terminated by acute angles, 

 form the genus Opatrinus of Count Dejean. 



They all belong to America +. 



Those, where the same tarsi, and in the same sex, have the first 

 joint, and particularly the fourth, sensibly narrower or smaller than 

 the two that are intermediate, and in which the tliorax is narrowed 

 near the posterior angles, form four other subgenera, the characters 

 of Avhich are so faint and blended that they may all be imited in one, 

 that of Dendarus, Meg., Dcj. 



In some species, as in Opatriniis, the tibiae are narrow, elongated, 

 but slightly dilated at their extremity and almost identical in both 

 sexes ; and the thorax is abruptly narrowed on each side near the 

 posterior angles, which form a small acute tooth : they form the 

 Dendari, properly so called §. 



In the following, the four anterior tibise, or at least the two first, 

 are dilated triangularly at the extremity. The body is oval. Such 

 is the Heliophilus of Count Dejean. Sometimes the thorax ter- 

 minates insensibly on each side in an acute angle. The body is 

 proportionally shorter and Avider. 



Certain species, with a large thorax hardly wider than it is long, 



* Lat., Gener. Crust, et Insect., II, p. 155. See the Catalogue, &c., of Dejean, 

 p. 65. The Platynohis undatus of Fabricius differs but little from the A. grisea. 

 That author is, I think, mistaken as to its habitat. — Plat. l<fvigafi(s, Id. 



t The inferior surface of these tarsi is usually silky or furnished with a brush. 



X Blaps clathrata, Fab. ; — B, punctata, Fab., and perhaps his Platymtus dila- 

 tatus. 



§ See Catalogue, &c., Dej., p. 65, and the Platymtus excavatus, and crenatus. 

 Fab. 



