378 INSECTA. 



qualities, and which, according to them, killed the oxen that accidentally 

 swallowed them while grazing. 

 Among the divisions of this genus the most noted is the 



CANTHARIS, Geoff 'roy, Olivier, MELOE, Linnaus, LYTTA, Fabricius, 



Which have all the joints of the tarsi entire, and the thorax almost ovoid, slightly 

 elongated, narrowed anteriorly and truncated posteriorly, by which this sub- 

 genus is distinguished from the preceding one. The head is a little wider 

 than the thorax. The antennae of the males are sometimes irregular and even 

 semipectinated. 



C. vesicatorius. (The Spanish Fly.) From six to ten lines in length, of a 

 glossy golden-green, with simple, regular, black antennae. This insect is well 

 known from its medical uses. 



It appears in France, near the time of the summer solstice, and is more 

 particularly found about the ash and lilac, on the leaves of which it feeds ; it 

 diffuses a highly penetrating odour. The larva lives in the ground and gnaws 

 the roots of plants. In the United States of America, the species called by 

 Fabricius the vittata (our Potato-fly}, and which abounds on the potato 

 plants, is applied to the same uses as the one of which we are speaking. 



The third general section of the Coleoptera, that of the TETRAMEBA, con- 

 sists exclusively of those in which all the tarsi are quadriarticulated. 



All these insects live on vegetable matters. The feet of their larvte are 

 usually very short, and they are even wanting or are replaced by mammillae in 

 a great number. The perfect insect is found on the flowers or leaves of 

 plants. 



FAMILY I. 



RHYNCHOPHORA*. 



THIS family is distinguished by the entire prolongation of the head, which 

 forms a sort of snout or proboscis. 



The abdomen is bulky in most of them, the antennae geniculate, and fre- 

 quentiy clavate. The penultimate joint of the tarsi is almost always bilobate. 

 The posterior thighs are dentated in several. 



The larvae have an oblong body, and resemble a small, very soft, white 

 worm ; their head is squamous, and they are destitute of feet, or in lieu of 

 them there are merely small mammillae. They gnaw various parts of plants. 

 Several live exclusively in the interior of their fruit or seeds, and frequently do 

 us much injury, Their chrysalides are enclosed in a shell. Many of the 

 Rhynchophora, when very abundant within certain limits, are even very 

 noxious in their perfect state. They tap the buds or leaves of various culti- 

 vated vegetables, useful or necessary to man, and feed on their parenchyma. 



Long-snouted. 



