202 Prof. J. C. Schiodte on the Classification 



branch of the organ, runs through its whole length, and then 

 doubles back and continues into the extreme end of the spirally 

 wound part of the vesicula seminalis : from the point where it 

 doubles back, near the extremity of the lateral branch, a long 

 slender caecum arises, of which the inner cavity soon becomes 

 obsolete, and which then becomes exceedingly thin and pointed. 

 The inner membrane is very firm and tough, and often pushes 

 through the surrounding cellular stratum and the external mem- 

 brane in the process of dissection under water. 



The second pair of glandular follicles partly cover the vesiculse 

 seminales when the sexual organs are observed from below ; 

 they are generally cleft into two branches — one very thick and 

 clumsy, behind the top of the ductus ejaculatorius, the other, 

 which is more slender, in front of this {Cryptohypnus quadripus- 

 tulatus, Lacon murinus, Agriotes aterrimus and marginatus, Am- 

 pedus balteatus, Diacanthus tessellatus) . In other cases they are 

 shaped like bags, the terminal part bent like a ram^s horn 

 {Limunius minutus, Diacanthus bipustulatus, Athous vittatus) ; 

 or the terminal portion may besides be deeply bifid [A. niger) 

 or be furnished at the base with a tubiform arched branch 

 {A. ruficaudis, Campylus linearis) . In Adrastus limbatus these 

 follicles are dilated into the shape of balloons, and are very 

 large, almost four times as large as the vesiculse seminales ; in 

 Cebrio they are likewise very large, and the bagsof elliptical shape. 



The third pair of glandular follicles attached to the ductus 

 ejaculatorius are almost always tubiform, of very varying stout- 

 ness and length : only in Adrastus limbatus have they the same 

 considerable size and balloon-shape as the second pair of follicles 

 possess. 



The penis is narrow, spear-shaped, with a pair of narrow 

 valves, which are generally furnished with a small tooth near 

 their extreme point. 



The ovaries are divided like the fingers of the hand. The 

 number of fingers varies considerably, according to genera and 

 species, but generally according to the same rule as that of the 

 foUiculi of the testes, so that the number is greater in the larger 

 species, less in those of smaller size. Their number, however, 

 does not generally exactly correspond with that of the foUiculi 

 testis, as may be seen by the following series of examples : — 

 Diacanthus emeus has eighty to ninety fingers, Athous niger 

 seventy to eighty, Melanotus castanipes, Diacanthus pectinicornis, 

 sjcelandicus, and Athous ruficaudis about fifty; Lacon murinus, 

 Agriotes aterrimus about forty; Diacanthus tessellatus, Limonius 

 cylindricus, Athous vittatus, Campylus linearis about thirty; Car- 

 diophorus asellus, Ampedus sanguineus, Diacanthus bipustulatus, 

 Athous subfuscu^ twenty to twenty-six; Agriotes lineatus, ob- 



