

380 INSECTA. 



dibles project, are strong, and frequently unequal as to size. The 

 palpi are almost filiform, or slightly enlarged near the end, and ter- 

 minated by an oval or ovoid joint. 



These animals feed on cadaverous matters and decomposing ve- 

 getable substances, such as old mushrooms, &c.: some establish 

 their domicil under the bark of trees. Their gait is slow, and their 

 colour a brilliant black or bronze. Such of their larvae as have 

 been observed those of the cadaverinus feed on the same sub- 

 stances as the perfect Insect. Their body is glabrous, soft, and of 

 a yellowish white, the head and first segment excepted, the dermis 

 of which is brown or reddish; it is provided with six short legs, and 

 is terminated posteriorly by two articulated appendages, and an anal 

 and tubular prolongation; the squamous plate of the first segment 

 is longitudinally canaliculated. 



This tribe, as we have already stated, will consist exclusively of 

 the genus 



HISTER, Lin. 

 Now consisting of Hister proper, Hololepta, Jibrscus, &c. 



The legs of the other Clavicornes are inserted at an equal distance 

 from each other. Those in which these organs are not contractile, 

 and the tarsi at most can only be flexed on the tibia?, whose mandi- 

 bles are most commonly salient and flattened or not thick, and whose 

 praesternura is never dilated anteriorly, will constitute five other 

 tribes. 



In the third tribe of this family, that of the SILPHALES, we find 

 five distinct joints in all the tarsi, and the mandibles terminating in 

 an entire point without emargination or fissure. The antennae ter- 

 minate in a club that is most commonly perfoliaceous and consisting 

 of from four to five joints. The internal side of the maxillje, in 

 most of them, is furnished with a horny tooth. The anterior tarsi 

 are frequently dilated, at least in the males. The exterior margin 

 of the elytra of the greater number is marked by a groove with a 

 well raised border. 



This tribe is composed of the genus 



SILPHA, Lin. 

 Now variously divided. The most interesting of these genera are 



