of Bupi'estidse and Elateridse. 199 



account of that of Elateridse, only mentioning such details of 

 the anatomical structure of Buprestidse as will serve to clear up 

 the differences between the two families. The statements I have 

 to offer with regard to Elateridse are the results partly of my 

 own investigations of the anatomy of the insects, partly of a 

 considerable number of dissections made by Dr. Fr. Meinert. 



The tracheae are without vesicles; the spiral ribs of the in- 

 ternal membrane of the larger trunks in the head and thorax 

 are generally furnished with fine spines. The fat is not present in 

 great quantity, though the less active species (as Agriotes lineatus, 

 obscurus, sputator) have more of it ; it is often of a yellowish 

 colour, on account of the numerous yellow cytoblasts contained 

 in the fat-cells. 



True salivary glands are wanting, the cells secreting the saliva 

 being not more numerous than can be accommodated in the 

 walls of the pharynx, on either side of which a series of orifices 

 give outlet to the ducts from these large and round glandular 

 cells. 



The digestive tube is of very simple construction, and so short 

 that it never much exceeds the length of the animal, often only 

 by a sixth or an eighth, more rarely by one-third. The pharynx 

 is flat, strongly narrowed behind. The oesophagus is very short, 

 gradually widened into the very small craw, which reaches a 

 shorter or longer way into the prothorax. The muscular mem- 

 brane of the oesophagus and the craw is rather weak j the inner 

 membrane is covered with fine stiff hairs, which are directed 

 forwards, more or less conspicuously arranged in longitudinal 

 rows. The gizzard is very small, and in reality but little more 

 than a pylorus formed by the narrowing of the craw, whereby 

 the hair spines are made to stand closer together, so as to form 

 a reversed wheel. 



The stomach is cylindrical, straight, and reaches more or less 

 far into the abdominal cavity ; in front it is club-formed, dis- 

 tended, and the anterior end often protrudes so much that it 

 receives the gizzard in a kind of dip. The muscular membrane 

 of the stomach has in some cases equally well-developed longi- 

 tudinal and transverse muscles, forming a net of quadrangular 

 meshes, through which the layer of glandular cells peculiar to 

 the stomach protrudes like warts ; but in other cases the trans- 

 verse muscles are weak, whilst the longitudinal ones are very 

 powerful and strongly striated (as in Lacon murinus, Diacanthus 

 aneus), through the intervals of which the cellular stratum pro- 

 trudes as parallel longitudinal rows of small semiglobular cajca. 

 The intestine is in the majority of cases straight, smooth, with- 

 out prominent longitudinal bands or intestinal warts, mostly 

 with unstriped transverse muscles, and without marked distinc- 



