24 HETEROMERA. \llelopina,. 



anterior and intermediate pairs in the male being usually dilated ; the 

 legs, as a whole, are rather long, and the femora extend considerably 

 beyond the sides of the body. 



HELOPS, Fabricius. 



In this genus the antennae are long and rather slender, and the 

 maxillary palpi have the last joint dilated and securiform ; the third 

 joint of the antennae is four or five times longer than the second, and 

 the penultimate joints are always longer than broad ; the eyes are trans- 

 verse and slightly emarginate ; the thorax is transverse or subtransverse, 

 almost truncate in front and behind, more or less strongly margined ; 

 the tibiae are rather slender, but are gradually widened to apex, and 

 have the apical spurs small or very small ; the genus is allied to Tenebrio, 

 but differs in its short metasternum, long antennae, less elongate and 

 more oval elytra, and other characters ; it is very extensive in point of 

 numbers, containing upwards of two hundred and fifty or three hundred 

 species, of which about one hundred and twenty (if we include the sub- 

 genera) are found in Europe, and the remainder are widely distributed 

 in Northern and Central Asia and Ceylon, Northern Africa and the 

 Gaboon district, Cuba, the Australian region. &c. ; only a few species, 

 however, appear to have been met with in tropical countries. 



The larva of S. ccerulevs is described and figured by Schiodte (I.e. p. 571, pi. xi. 

 fig. 15), and also by Westwood (Classification, i. p. 312, fig. 36, 20) ; it is 

 found in the rotten wood of chestnut and other trees, and is elongate, linear and 

 cylindrical, about ten times as long as broad, of a yellow colour with dark tuber- 

 cles on the last abdominal segment ; the protborax is longer than broad, narrowed 

 in front, and constricted before middle; the penultimate segment is rugose and the 

 terminal one short, and armed with two divergent erect and acute spines ;* the front 

 pair of legs is longer than the intermediate and posterior pairs ; Westwood records 

 the fact of these larva? doing damage to a window frame in which they had taken 

 up their abode. 



I. Last joint of antenna) obliquely truncate; front con- 

 siderably dilated before eyes ; thorax strongly margined, 



with sides much rounded in front (Helops, i. sp. ) . . . H. C(EHULETJS, L. 



II. Last joint of antennae rounded; front slightly dilated 

 before eyes; thorax narrowly margined at sides, with 

 sides not or not strongly rounded in front (s.g. Nalas- 



sus, Muls.). 



i. Colour pitchy brown ; thorax not sinuate before base . H. STEIATUS, Fourc. 

 ii. Colour testaceous ; thorax slightly sinuate before base . H. PAI/LIDUS, Curt, 



X. coeruleus, L. A large and conspicuous species, broad and 

 convex, nigro- coeruleus above, black beneath, moderately shining ; head 

 rugosely punctured, antennae moderately long and robust ; thorax sub- 

 quadrate in the male, evidently broader than long in the female, with 

 coarse raised margins, and with the sides rounded in front and rather 

 strongly narrowed behind, punctuation thick and strong, in parts sub- 



* This larva appears, if touched, to strike upwards or sideways with these spines ; 

 they seem therefore to be, in part at least, weapons of defence. 



