196 Prof. J, C. Schiodte on the Classification 



ment depends partly on the nutritive side of the animal's life, 

 partly on the requirements of propagation ; but the latter pre- 

 dominate. The mandibles present the appearance of short, 

 exceedingly strong, quadrangular, pointed, hollow chisels, with 

 sharp or somewhat serrated edges, with a deep and roomy 

 socket above, and a very prominent globular condyle be- 

 low, which strongly reminds us of the head of the humair 

 femur. Their muscles are so large as to necessitate a very large 

 and round skull. The mandibles are principally in the service 

 of the propagation of the species, since it is by their means 

 that the beetle, after its transformation, works its way out of the 

 timber; nor is it improbable that they are employed in making 

 preparations for the deposition of the eggs, viz. by facilitating 

 the application of the ovipositor to suitable parts of the bark. 

 They are largest in those Buprestidae which, as larvae, burrow 

 deepest, and the food of the beetles consists in that case of 

 leaves and buds*. In the group of Anthaxini, on the contrary, 

 they are somewhat less developed; they are fiaUer, their extre- 

 mities laciniated, and their inner margin less deeply excavated : 

 in this case the beetle feeds upon pollen, and possesses peculiar 

 bag-shaped extensions on the (Esophagus for the preliminary 

 collection and softening of this kind of food. The maxilla? are 

 broad and powerful, their lobes small, coriaceous, covered with 

 very stiff, short hairs — the outer one broader, but the inner one 

 more pointed, than in the leaf-eaters. The mentum affords, by 

 its clumsy shape and considerable thickness, a good support 

 from below for the play of the mandibles and the maxillse. The 

 lingua is without stipes, small, thick, coriaceous, undivided, 

 armed in the same way as the lobes of the maxillae ; the labial 

 palpi are short, with much-reduced basal joints, but with free pro- 

 trusible stipites. The palpariuin in both pairs of palpi is large 

 (the terminal joint truncate) in those Buprestidse which have to 

 choose timber for their young ; but it is small (the terminal joint 

 obovate) in those which place their eggs in thin branches, stems, 

 and parenchyma. 



The great variety of forms amongst Elateridse is expressed 

 also in the structure of the mouth. Of this we meet with two 

 types, one being principally calculated to serve the nutritive 

 life, the other to serve the propagation of the species. 



* According to information from Tranquebar, the large Sternocera 

 chrysis swarms round certain trees, eating their leaves, as the cockchafers 

 with us. In some years it occurs in great numbers. Once it happened 

 that a box received from that locality contained nothing but hundreds of 

 bellies of this Buprestid. The native who had been sent out collecting had 

 understood the matter in his own way, and taken off the shiny green shields, 

 which his countrywomen use for ornaments. 



