414 INSECTA. 



These Insects, when touched, or while they run, elevate the ex- 

 tremity of their abdomen and flex it in every direction. They also 

 use it to push their wings under the elytra. The tarsi of their two 

 anterior legs are frequently broad and dilated, and their coxae as 

 well as those of the intermediate legs are very large. They are 

 usually found in earth, dung, and excrementitious matters ; some live 

 in mushrooms, rotten wood, or under stones ; others are only met 

 with in aquatic localities. Some very small ones keep on flowers. 

 They are all voracious, run with great swiftness, and take wing very 

 promptly. 



The larva bears a close resemblance to the perfect Insect : it has 

 the figure of an elongated cone, the base of which is occupied by 

 the very large head ; the last ring is prolonged into a tube, and is 

 accompanied by two conical and hairy appendages. It feeds on the 

 same matters as the perfect Insect. 



The first stomach of the Staphylini is small and without plicae ; 

 the second is very long and pilose ; the intestine is extremely short *. 



It is a very extensive genus, which we will divide into five 

 sections. 



In the first, or that of the Fissilabra, the head is completely ex- 

 posed and separated from the thorax, which is sometimes square or 

 semi-oval, and at others rounded, or cordiform and tnmcated, by a 

 neck or sensible strangulation. The labrum is profoundly cleft and 

 forms two lobes. Such is the 



OxYPORUS, Fab. 



Where the maxillary palpi are filiform, and those attached to the 

 labium arc terminated by a very large and hmate joint. The an- 

 tennae are large, perfoliate and compressed ; the anterior tarsi are 

 not dilated ; the last joint and then the second are the longest. They 

 inhabit the Boleti and Agarici. 



O.rufus; Staphylinus riifiis,h.; Panz. Faun. Insect. Germ., 

 XVI, 19. About three lines in length ; fulvous; head, pectus, 

 extremity and interior margin of the elytra, as well as the anus, 

 black f. 



AsTRAp,Eus, Grav. 



The four palpi terminated by a larger and nearly triangular joint ; 

 anterior tarsi greatly dilated, the first and last joints the longest J. 

 In the 



* According to M. Dufour, the only essential difference between their alimentary 

 canal and that of the carnivorous Coleoptera consists in the absence of the crop. 

 Their biliary vessels are inserted at the same lateral point, and, at least in some 

 species, piesent near the middle a knot or vesicle, not observed in any other Insects. 

 Their sexual apparatus differs greatly from that of the carnivorous Coleoptera. See 

 Ann. des Sc. Nat., Octob. 1825. 



f Add O. marillosiis, Fab. ; Panz., lb., 20. The remaining Oxypori of Fabricius 

 belong to subgenera of our fourth section. See Oliv. Encyc. Method., genus 

 Oxijpore, and the Coleoptera Microptera, Gravenhorst. 



I Staphylinus ulmi, Oliv. ; Ross., Faun. Etrusc, I, v, 6 ; Panz., lb., LXXXVIII, 

 4 ; Latr., Gener. Crust, et Insect., I, 284. 



