

COLEOPTERA. 373 



thorax near its posterior angles; elytra marked with lines of small punctures. 

 From South America. 



During- the night, the thoracic spots diffuse a very strong- light, suffici- 

 ently brig-lit to enable one to read the smallest character, particularly if 

 several of the Insects be placed in the same vase. By it also the women 

 of the country pursue their work; and ladies even use it as an ornament, 

 placing- it in their hair during the evening paseo. The Indians fix them to 

 their feet to light them in their nocturnal journeys. 



North America is extremely rich in this genus. The Insect is usually 

 called a Snap-bug. 



Our second section, or that of the MALACODERMI, is divided into 

 five tribes. In the first, or the CEBRIONITES, so named from the 

 genus Cebrio of Olivier, on which all the others depend, the man- 

 dibles terminate in a simple or entire point, the palpi are of equal 

 thickness or more slender at the extremity, the body is rounded and 

 convex in some, oval or oblong, but arcuated above, and inclined 

 anteriorly in others. It is usually soft and flexible; the thorax is 

 transversal, widest at base, and its lateral angles acute, or in seve- 

 ral even prolonged into spines. The antenna? are generally longer 

 than the head and thorax. The legs are not contractile. 



Their habits are unknown. Many of them are found on plants in 

 aquatic localities. They may all be united in one genus, that of 



CEBRIO, Oliv. Fab. 



Some, which establish a connexion between this and the preceeding tribe, 

 which are even of as firm and solid a consistence as the Sternoxi, whose- legs 

 are never fitted for leaping, and whose body is generally an oblong oval, 

 with the antennae of the males either pectinated, flabellated, or serrated, 

 the palpi filiform or somewhat elongated at the extremity, and the pos- 

 terior angles of the thorax prolonged into an acute point, present man- 

 dibles projecting beyond the labrum, narrow, and highly arcuated or in the 

 form of hooks. The labrum is usually very short, and emarginated or 

 bilobate. 



There, as in the Elaterides, the praesternum terminates posteriorly in a 

 point, received into a cavity in the mesosternum. 



The antennae, which in the males of some species are long, are composed 

 of eleven pectinated or serrated joints. The last joint of the palpi is almost 

 cylindrical or forms a reversed cone. 



This genus is now cut up into several, such as Physodactylus, dnelastes, 

 Sandalus, Rhipicera, &c. 



The second tribe of the Malacodermi, or that of the LAMPYRIDES, 

 is distinguished from the first by the enlarged termination of the 



