452 RHYNCHOPHORA. [PlatypodincB. 



is shaken, the beetles burrowing within it answer with quite a chorus of 

 squeaking, in order to hear which, the ear must be placed near the 

 wood. The very rare beetle Colijdium elonyatum is parasitic on 

 Platypus, but has hitherto been met with in Britain only in the New 

 Forest. 



PLATYPUS, Herbst. 



This genus is a very large one in point of numbers and contains 

 about one hundred and sixty species, which are chiefly found in North, 

 Central and South America, and in Oceania (New Guinea, Borneo, the 

 Moluccas, the Philippines, New Zealand, &c. ; a few have occurred in 

 India and Ceylon ; only two are found in Europe, one of which, 

 P. oxyurus, is confined to the Pyrenees, whereas the other ranges from 

 Norway and Sweden to Northern Africa, and also over Northern Asia 

 and North America. 



Pa cylindrus. F. Elongate, cylindrical, slightly shining, clothed with 

 sparing yellowish-grey villose pubescence, which is thicker at the apex 

 of the elytra, pitchy-black, or with the head and thorax black or pitchy- 

 black, and the elytra pitchy, reddish-brown, or reddish ; head large, 

 with the forehead broad and depressed, eyes large and moderately pro- 

 minent ; antennae very short, six-jointed, with a large scape and club, 

 brownish-red or reddish-testaceous ; thorax longer than broad, finely and 

 obsoletely punctured, with the sides subparallel and compressed in 

 middle, basal portion almost smooth with a central line ; elytra deeply 

 striated, the striee being scarcely punctured, interstices elevated and sub- 

 costate, apex reflexed ; legs red or castaneous, with the femora and 

 tibice, especially of the anterior pair, dilated ; anterior tibiae with trans- 

 verse elevated lines on their outer margin ; tarsi very long and slender, 

 more than twice as long as tibiae, with large simple claws. L. C-7 

 mm. 



Male with the posterior declivity of the elytra furnished with two 

 rather indistinct teeth. 



In solid dead and just decaying: wood of oak, bcecb and chestnut; extremely local, 

 and usually regarded as rare ; Windsor (Stephens) ; Shipley, near Horsham (Gor- 

 ham) ; New Forest ; Monmouthshire and Herefordshire, locally abundant (Chapman) ; 

 Scarborough (Lawson). 



