452 INSECTA, 



They live under the bark of trees. The animal figured by PaykuU, 

 as the larva of a species of this subgenus, is that of a species of Syr- 

 phus, or Fly*. 



The other Histeroides, in which the prsesternum projects over the 

 mouth, the maxillae are terminated by a short lobe, with but slightly 

 projecting palpi composed of joints which, the last excepted, are 

 rather in the form of a reversed cone than cylindrical, and finally, in 

 which the mcntum is slightly emarginated, will re-enter the subgenus 



HiSTEK, properly so called. 



Some species in which, as in the Hololeptse, the four posterior tibiae 

 have but a single range of small spines, and that also live under the 

 bark of trees, constitute the genera Platysoma and Dendrophilus 

 of Leach. The first f only diifers from the second + in the flattening 

 of the body above, and in the shortening of the thorax, which is also 

 narrowed anteriorly. A species of the same division, H. probosci- 

 deus, Payk., Monog., VIII, 4, has a peculiar form. The body is long 

 and narrow, and the thorax more than half as long again as it is 

 wide. 



The remaining Histeroides have two ranges of s])ines on the four 

 posterior tibiae. They are the only ones which Dr. Leach retains in 

 the genus Hister. 



H. unicolor, L.; Payk., lb., II, 7- Four lines in length; en- 

 tirely black and glossy; three dentations on the exterior side of 

 the two first tibise ; two striae on each side of the thorax, and 

 four on the external part of each elytron, that nearest the mar- 

 gin interrupted. Very common. 



The number of tibial dentations, that of the striae on the thorax 

 and elytra, their punctures, and the form of the body, have furnished 

 M. Paykull with excellent characters, by means of which he has well 

 described the species. 



A last subdivision of this tribe comprises very small Histeroides, 

 with a thick and almost globular body, of which the but slightly or 

 not at all laterally compressed praesternum does not advance over the 

 mouth, and is straight in front. 



In some — Abr.^us, Leach — it is prolonged to the anterior angles 

 of the thorax, and entirely covers the antenna? M'hen they are con- 

 tracted; in the others — Onthophilus, Leach — it is narrower; but 

 here the antennal club is received into a very distinct orbicular cavity, 

 situated under the anterior angle of the thorax. The anterior tibiae 

 are frequently narrow, almost linear, and edcntated. The last supe- 

 rior semi-segment of the abdomen is curved infcriorly, and appears 

 to terminate it§. 



* Hist. Monog., p. 101, et seq. 



t Hister picipes, Fab,; Payk., lb., VIII, 5;—H.fuviconiis, Id., VIII, 6;—H. 

 ollongiis, Id,, X, 3, 



X A. pundatus, Id., VII, 5. 



§ The H. globosus, Payk., VIII, 2, is referred by Leach to his genus Abraus, and 

 also the H, minutus, Id., VIII, 1; to his Onthophilus, he refers the Hist, striaivs, 



