COLEOPTERA. 137 



LONGITARSUS, Lut. 



All tlie characters of Altica proper or of the preceding subgenus, 

 but the posterior tarsi are at least as long as the tibiae to which they 

 are attached *. 



FAMILY VII. 



CLAVIPALPI. 



The Insects of our seventh and last family of the Tetramera are 

 distinguished from all those of the same section, having, like them, 

 the under part of the three first joints of the tarsi furnished with 

 brushes and the penultimate bifid f, by their antennae, which are ter- 

 minated in a very distinct and perfoliated club, as well as by their 

 maxillae, armed on the inner side by a nail or corneous tooth. In 

 some few the joints of the tarsi are entire, but they are removed from 

 the other Tetramera with analogous tarsi, by their body, which is 

 almost globular, and contracts into a ball. 



Their body is most commonly of a rounded form, and frequently 

 even, very convex, and hemispherical; the antennae are shorter than 

 the body, the mandibles emarginated or dentated at the extremity, 

 and the palpi terminated by a large joint; the last joint of the max- 

 illary palpi is very large, transversal, compressed, and almost lunate. 

 The form of their organs of manducation shows them to be gnawers, 

 and in fact the species indigenous to Europe are found in the Boleti 

 which grow on the trunks of trees, under their bark, &c. 



Some have the penultimate joint of the tarsi bilobate, and do not 

 contract themselves into a ball. 



They may be re-united in the single genus 



Erotylus, Fab. 



Here, the last joint of the maxillary palpi is transversal, and almost 

 lunate or securiform. 



Erotylus, Fab. 



In the Erotyli properly so called, and from which the JEgilhi, Fab., 

 do not appear to \is to be essentially distinct, the intermediate joints 

 of the antennae are almost cylindrical, and the club, formed ]iy the 

 last ones, is oblong; the interior and corneous division of their max- 

 illae is terminated by two teeth. 



They are peculiar to South America \. 



* The seventh, such as the A. luridu, atricilla, quadripustulata, dorsalis, holsatica, 

 parvula, anchusce, afra, of Olivier, Gyllenhall, &c. 



f The last has a knot at base, a character also observed in the Coccinellje. 



I See Oliv., Col., V, 89; Schoenh., Synou. lusect., 11, genera ^githus, Erotylus; 

 and the Monograph of this genus by M. Duponcliel, who has continued the work of 

 Godart on the Lepidoptera of France, inserted in the M^moires du Museum d'His- 

 toire Naturelle. 



VOL. IV. T 



