348 . INSECTA. 



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. 



This genus is very extensive and is now divided into six sections, viz. The 

 FISSILABRA, where we find the true Staphylini, the LONGIPALPI, the DEN- 

 TICRURA, the DEPRKSSA, and the MICROCEPHALA. Each of these sections 

 consists of various genera. The species are excessively numerous. 



FAMILY III. 



SERRICORNES*. 



IN the third family of pentamerous Coleoptera, as in the preceding and fol- 

 lowing families of the same order, we find but four palpi. The elytra cover 

 the abdomen, which, with some other characters, distinguish the insects which 

 compose it from the Brachelytra just mentioned. The antenna?, with some 

 exceptions, are equal throughout, or smaller at the extremity, dentated, either 

 like a saw or a comb, or even like a fan, and in this respect are most developed 

 in the males. The penultimate joint of the tarsi is frequently bilobate or bifid. 

 These characters are rarely found in the following family, that of the Clavi- 

 cornes, to which we arrive by such insensible gradations, that to define its 

 limits rigorously becomes a very difficult matter. 



Some, in which the body is always firm and solid, and most commonly oval 

 or elliptical, with partly contractile legs, have the head plunged vertically into 

 the thorax up to the eyes; and the prffisternum, or median portion of the 

 thorax, elongated, dilated, or reaching to beneath the mouth, usually distin- 

 guished on each by a groove in which the antennae always short are lodged, 

 and prolonged posteriorly into a point, which is received into a depression of 

 the anterior extremity of the mesosternttm. These anterior legs are at a dis- 

 tance from the anterior extremity of the thorax. They form a first section, or 

 that of the STERNOXI. 



Others, whose head is enclosed posteriorly by the thorax, or at least covered 

 by it at base, but in which the prsesternum is not dilated, and does not project 

 anteriorly in the manner of a cliin-cloth, and is not usually terminated posteri- 

 orly in a point received into a cavity in the mesosternum, and in which the 

 body is most commonly either entirely or partially soft and flexible, constitute 

 a second section, that of the MALACODERMI. 



A third and last, that of the XYLOTROGI, will comprise those Serricornes, in 

 which the posterior extremity of the praisternum is not similarly prolonged, 

 but whose head is completely exposed and separated from the thorax by a 

 strangulation or species of neck. 



We will divide the Sternoxi into two tribes. In the first, or that of the 

 BUPRESTIDES, the posterior projection of the prsesternum is flattened, and not 



* Saw-horned. 



