382 INSECTA. 



least as long as the head and thorax, and terminated in a quadriar- 

 ticulated and elongated club. The last joint of the palpi is conical. 

 The legs are elongated and slender. With the exception of some 

 species the Cholevas the tarsi are nearly similar in both sexes. 

 This tribe consists of the genus 



SCAPHIDIUM. 



In the true Scaphidia, the five last joints of the antennae are almost globular, 

 and compose the club. The maxillary palpi project but little, and gradu- 

 ally taper to a point, the penultimate joint not being thicker than the last 

 at their junction. The body is navicelliform? the margin of the thorax 

 slightly recurved, and the elytra truncated. They inhabit mushrooms. 

 But few species are known; one from Cayenne and the rest from the north 

 of Europe. 



The subgenera are Choleva and Mylcechus. 



The fifth tribe, or that of the NITIDULARIJE, approximates to the 

 fourth in the scutiform and bordered body, but the mandibles are 

 bifid or ernarginated at the extremity; the tarsi seem to consist of 

 but four joints, the first and last, in some, being only visible beneath, 

 where they merely form a slight projection, and the penultimate in 

 the remainder being very small, in the form of a knot, enclosed be- 

 tween the lobes of the preceding ones. The antennal club is always 

 perfoliaceous, consists of three or four joints, and is usually short or 

 but little elongated. 



The palpi are short and filiform, or somewhat thickest at the ex- 

 tremity. The elytra in several are short or truncated. The legs 

 are but slightly elongated, and their tibiae frequently widened at the 

 end; the tarsi are furnished with hairs or pellets. The habitation 

 of these Insects varies with the species; they are found on flowers, 

 in mushrooms, putrified meat, and under the bark of trees. They 

 form the genus 



NITIDULA. 



In some, the antennal club consists of but two joints, and the anterior part 

 of the head projects in the manner of a semicircular flattened clypeus, 

 covering the mandibles and other parts of the mouth. 



Coi-oBictFs, Lat. 



In this and the following subgenus, the tarsi, from the point where they 

 are movable, seem to consist of but four joints, of which the three first, 

 much shorter than the last, are entire, and simply furnished underneath 



