Cfiji>toce^kaUna.'\ PUYTOPHAGA. 287 



brarhys and Stylosomus; the members of the tribe have the thorax 

 margined at sides, and as broad as the elytra, to which it is closely 

 applied, so that the whole form is robust and compact ; the head, as the 

 name implies, is retracted and nearly hidden ; the antennae are inserted 

 a little above the line of the eyes and are widely separated, and, as a 

 rule, long and slender ; the anterior coxal cavities are closed behind, 

 and the anterior coxae are transverse, not prominent, and distant ; the 

 pygidium is bare, and the abdomen has the last two segments connate ; 

 the legs are moderate, the anterior pair being often more or less elon- 

 gated ; the species, as a rule, are brightly coloured, and very often 

 variegated, although a considerable number are black ; they are very 

 rarely pubescent ; they occur on the leaves of various trees and shrubs, 

 and are more or less gregarious in their habits; the larvae have the 

 forehead depressed, and the sac in which they live thicker and much 

 less fragile than in Clythra. 



CRYPTOCEPHALUS, Geoffroy. 



In point of numbers this is one of the largest of all the genera of 

 Coleoptcra; no less than six hundred and eighty-one species are 

 enumerated in the catalogue of Gemminger and Von Harold, and about 

 one hundred and fifty more are recorded by Donckier de Donceel in his 

 supplement published in 1S85 ; besides the characters mentioned in the 

 description of the tribe, they may be known by their kidney-shaped 

 eyes, distinct scutellum, bifid third joint of tarsi, simple claws, and the 

 fact that the thorax is sinuate and compressed on each side at base. 



The females are, as a rule, larger than the males, and often more 

 strongly punctured, and may be known by the large deep round fovea 

 in the middle of the last abdominal segment, in which the egg is 

 retained before it is attached to the plant ; the males often have the 

 last segment more or less depressed or foveate, and furnished with 

 teeth, transverse carinae, &c. 



The larvae of the CryptocepJiali (as described by Weise, 1. c. p. 139) remain, with 

 their abdomen curved against the breast, in a cylindrical bag, which is narrowed 

 in front, and which they can only get out of aa far as the first abdominal segment, 

 and drag along with them in an oblique, almost upright, position, with a jerky 

 motion ; they closely resemble the larvae of Clythra, and only differ, in fact, by their 

 flat and depressed head ; the pupae are attached to dry leaves and stems of grass, 

 and the perfect insect appears at the beginning of summer. 



"Westwood (Classification, vol. i. p. 386) has a note on the larva of 

 C. 12-punctatus, and mentions that in the spring of 1827 M. Ge'ne* 

 discovered several cased larvae on the trunk of an oak, which changed 

 on June 15th to this insect; the head of the larva exactly fits the orifice 

 of the case ; the antennae are short, and 3-jointed, the mandibles 

 triangular and bifid at the tip, and the legs are very long and slender ; 

 the case, according to M. Ge'ne', is formed of the excrement of the 

 insect, moulded into the proper form by the assistance of its m;indil>l<-s; 



