58 INSECTA. 



throughout. They are peculiar to South America, and at a first 

 glance resemble Coccinellae and various species of Crytoli. Such 

 are those which form the 



NiLio, Lat. * 

 FAMILY III. 



STENELYTRA. 



The third family of heteromerous Coleoptera only differs from the 

 second in the antennae, which are neither granose nor perfoliate, and 

 whose extremity, in the greater number, is not thickened. The body 

 is most frequently oblong, and arcuated above, and the legs are elon- 

 gated as in many other Insects. With the exception of their antennae 

 and size, the males resemble the females. These Heteromera are 

 usually much more agile than the preceding ones; several conceal 

 themselves under the bark of old trees, while most of the others are 

 found on leaves and flowers. Most of them were referred by Lin- 

 naeus to his genus Tenehrio; he distributed the remainder in Necy- 

 dcdis, Chrysoviela, Cerambyx and Cantharis. In the first edition of 

 this work, we united these Insects in the single genus Helops, but 

 their internal as well as external anatomy proves that Ave may divide 

 them into five tribes, attached to as many genera, viz. Helops, Cis- 

 tela, Dircaea, Fab., and the CEdemera and Mycterus of Olivier. With 

 respect to the biliary vessels, which have a caecal insertion, or the 

 posterior ones, -we learn from M. Dufour, that this insertion is not 

 effected in the two last genera as in the first and other preceding 

 heteromera, by a common trunk, but by three canals, one of which is 

 simple, the second bifid, and the third trifid. In the (Edemerae he 

 found salivary vessels. Their head is more or less narrowed and pro- 

 longed anteriorly in the form of a snout, and the penultimate joint of 

 the tarsi is always bilobate characters which seem to approximate 

 these Insects to the Rynchophora. With respect to the alimentary 

 canal, and several other considerations, Helops and Cistela approach 

 Tenebrio, but the Cistelae have a smooth chylific ventricle, entire 

 mandibles, and usually live on flowers or leaves, by which they are 

 distinguished from Helops. Most of the Dircsese have the faculty of 

 leaping, and the penultimate joint of their tarsi, or at least of some, 

 is bifid ; some of them inhabit mushrooms, others old wood. 



* Lat., Gener. Crust, et Insect., II, p. 198, aad I, x, 2; ^yithus marginatus, 

 Fab. See Germ., Insect. Spec. Nov., p. 162. 



The genera Eustrophus and Orchesia which we formerly placed in this family 

 now belong to the next. 



