440 INSECTA. 



M. bipustulatus ; Cantharis bipushdata, L.; Panz. lb., 3. 



Rather smaller, and of a glossy green; extremity of the elytra 



red*. 



Among the following Melyrides with filiform palpi, and whose 



thorax and abdomen are destitute of retractile vesicles, we will first 



place those the length of whose antennae at least equals that of the 



head and thorax, in Avhich the body is generally straight, elongated, 



and sometimes linear, and the hooks of the tarsi are usually, as in 



Malachius, bordered inferiorly by a membranous appendage. 



Dasytes, Payk. Fab. — Dermestes, Lin. 

 D. cceruleus. Fab.; Panz., Faun. Insect. Germ., XCVI, 10. 

 Three lines in length ; elongated ; green or bluish ; glossy and 

 pilose. Very common near Paris on flowers in the fields. 



D. tres noir, Oliv., Col. II, 21, ii, 28; Dermestes hirhis,!,. 

 Somewhat larger and less oblong ; all black and densely pilose ; 

 a much stouter and strongly hooked spine at the base of the 

 anterior tarsi in one of the two sexes. On the Grasses f. 

 Others, the crotchets of whose tarsi are unidentated, like these of 

 Dasytes, to AA'hich they are closely allied, and with which Olivier con- 

 founds them, are removed from that subgenus by the antennae being 

 shorter than the head and thorax, and having the third joint at least 

 double the length of the second. Their body is less elongated, and is 

 more solid ; the head is slightly prolonged and narrowed before, and 

 the thorax semiorbicular and truncated anteriorly. They have a 

 certain degree of resemblance to the Silphse of Linnaeus. Such are 

 those which form the 



Zygia, Fab. 



In which the fourth and following joints of the antennae almost 

 form an elongated, compressed, and serrated club ; most of the joints 

 transversal; thorax very convex. 



Z. oblovga. Fab. Found in Spain and Egypt, in the interior 

 of houses, and more particularly, according to Count Dejean, in 

 granaries. It is also sometimes found in France in the depart- 

 ments of the Pyrenees Orientales. A second species has been 

 discovered in Nubia. 



Melyris, Fab. 



In Melyris, properly so called, the antennae insensibly enlarge, but 

 without forming a club ; their joints are less dilated laterally and are 

 almost isometrical. The thorax is less convex \. 



* See op. cit. and Schoenh., Synon. Insect., II, p. 67- 



-(•For the other species, see Fabricius ; the Mt%/-fs of Olivier, 6 — 17; Panz., 

 Ind. Entora. p. 14.3 ; Lat., Gener. Crust, et Insect. I, p. 264 ; Germ., Insect. Spec. 

 Nov. Brazil produces tolerably large ones, some of which form a particular divi- 

 sion. 



X M. viridis, Fab. ; Oliv., Col. II, 21, i, i \—M. ahdominalis, Fab. ; Oliv,, lb., I, 

 7 ; Opatrum gramdaium, Fab. ; Coqueb., Illust. Icon. Insect., Ill, xxx, 7. 



