BRACHIURUS BRACHYSTELMA. 



02 1 



creation, beyond the imagination of man to conceive; 

 a single drop of water is now seen to possess count- 

 less numbers of organised beings, each pursuing the 

 functions of life ; each endowed with its own peculiar 

 habits or purposes, and all playing parts in their sphere 

 of life, no less important in the scale of creation 

 than those of the unwieldy elephant or the gigantic 

 whale. Could more be required to exhibit the infi- 

 nite wisdom of Nature's God, were every other proof 

 to fail ? This subject, so interesting in every point of 

 view, will be most amply treated under the article 

 INFITSORIA. 



BRACHIURUS. A section of American monkeys, 

 found chiefly or exclusively in the woods of the 

 warmer parts of that continent. The chief distinguish- 

 ing character is that upon which the name is founded, 

 the tail shorter than the body. There are two spe- 

 cies described, one with the body yellow, and the 

 extremities, the head, and the tail black ; and the 

 other with the head black, and all the rest yellow. 

 The first is Brachiurus auaraki of Spix, arid figured | 

 in Plate VIII. of his great work ; the other is Simia 

 mcliinocephala of Baron Humboldt. 



BRACHYCERUS (Fabricius). A genus of cole- 

 opterous insects belonging to the section Tetramera, 

 or beetles having four joints in all the tarsi, to the 

 subsection Ithyncophora, or those having the face pro- 

 longed into a snout, and to the family of the weevils, ' 

 Curculiunidae, in which family it forms a group of 

 species distinguished from all the others by having 

 the antennae, which are but slightly elbowed at the 

 extremity of the first joint, short, composed of nine 

 joints, and inserted near the tip of the snout, and the 

 tarsi not cushioned beneath. They are destitute of j 

 wings, the body is very convex, the abdomen and 

 elytra being nearly globular. These insects, which 

 are amongst the largest of the weevils, do not frequent 

 flowers, nor are they ever found upon trees and 

 plants, like the majority of the family. Their wing- 

 less state compels them to remain on the ground, 

 where they creep along with great heaviness, and 

 without the least agility. Here, therefore, we have a 

 perfect contrast with the equally wingless ground 

 beetles, as many of the Carabidos, which, in order to 

 compensate for the want of organs of flight, are 

 endowed with an increase in the power of locomotion 

 in their legs. The legs of the Brachyceri are, indeed, 

 as thick and as long as in many of the latter insects ; 

 but it would almost seem that it was merely for the 

 purpose of supporting, rather than bearing along, 

 their heavy and unwieldy bodies. Let us however 

 look at the habits of the two groups, and perhaps we 

 may be aole in some measure to account for the 

 difference ; the Carab'ulcE, we know, are amongst the 

 most voracious of insects, feeding upon others in a 

 living state ; hence we find them enabled to pursue 

 their prey by means of their increased agility. On 

 the contrary, all that we know of the habits of JBra- 

 chyccri is, that they abound in the sandy districts of 

 the south of Europe and in Africa, and that they 

 appear early in the spring. But analogy gives us 

 this further insight into their economy ; the similarity 

 in the construction of their oral apparatus with that 

 of the weevils, allowing us to draw the inference that 

 they feed upon vegetable substances, most probably 

 the roots of trees, or smaller plants. Hence no addi- 

 tional agility is required to enable them to obtain 

 their livelihood, neither is it required, as we have 

 taken occasion to observe under the article BLAPSID^:, 

 as a means of defence, because the Brachyceri are 



clothed in a coat of mail not less powerful than that 

 of any other coleopterous insect. 



The Ethiopian women suspend the body of some 

 of these insects round their necks, by means of a 

 thread, as a kind of amulet. Voyage de M. Cailliaud 

 au Fleuve Blanc. 



Schonherr, in his invaluable work upon the Curcu- 

 lionidae (now in course of publication), has described 

 112 species of this genus. 



BRACHYLOPHUS. A genus of saurian rep- 

 tiles, bearing considerable resemblance to the iguana 

 lizards, but differing from them in having no teeth on 

 the palate, and small teeth in the jaws. The scales 

 on the body are small ; there is a small crest on the 

 neck and back ; and a row of pores on the inside of 

 each thigh. They are, like all the rest of the tribe, 

 lively and harmless creatures, sporting in the sun in 

 hot climates. 



BRACHYPODIUM (Beauvois). A genus of 

 uncultivated grasses, consisting of twenty-two dif- 

 ferent species, three of which are British, and the 

 rest continental. 



BRACHYPTERA (short wings). One of the 

 four families into which Cuvier divides the web-footed 

 birds. (See the article BIRD.) These birds are the 

 divers properly so called. They bear nearly the 

 same relation to the water-rails that the web-footed 

 birds which do not dive bear to common poultry. 

 Their legs are placed much farther backward than 

 those of any other birds, and they walk with difficulty, 

 and carry the body in an upright position. They 

 are in general bad fliers, and some of them are inca- 

 pable of flight, their proper element being the water, 

 on the surface of which they repose, and in the body 

 of which they seek their food. Their plumage is 

 remarkable for its closeness, the polished lustre of its 

 surface, and its water proof quality. It is never 

 harmed by the longest exposure to the watery element, 

 nor does it appear to need much dressing from the 

 birds themselves. When under the surface they use 

 their wings like fins, and " keep stroke " with them 

 and their feet, swimming very much alter the manner 

 of frogs. The principal genera are GREBES, DIVERS, 

 GUILLEMOTS, AUKS, and PENGUINS, under which 

 titles some account of their appearances, characters, 

 and manners, will be found. 



BRACHYSEMA (Robert Brown). A family of 

 two species of evergreen trailing plants from New 

 South Wales. Class and order, JDecandria Mono- 

 gynia ; natural order, LeguminoscE. Generic cha- 

 racter : calyx five-cleft, somewhat unequal, with a 

 swollen tube ; standard shorter than the compressed 

 keel, which latter is as long as the wings ; pod on a 

 stalk, surrounded at the base by a little shield ; style 

 filiform, long, crowning the pod, which is swollen. 

 These plants are met with in botanical collections. 



BRACHYSTELMA (Robert Brown). A curious 

 tuberous-rooted plant from the Cape of Good Hope. 

 Natural order, Asclepiadea:. 



BRACHYURA (Latreille). One of the chief 

 divisions of the class Crustacea, belonging to the sec- 

 tion Malacostraca, or those with a hard shelly cover- 

 ing; subsection Podopthalma, or those with the eyes 

 placed at the extremity of footstalks ; and to the tribe 

 of Decripoda, or those which are furnished with ten 

 legs. These characters, body encased in a hard 

 shell, eyes pedunculated, and legs ten in number, are. 

 common to the greatest portion (in point of number) 

 of the whole class, the animals which possess them 

 are of large size, being in fact the giants of the class. 



