COLEOPTERA. 397 



FAMILY II. 



TAXICORNES. 



In this second family of the heteromerous Coleoptera, we find 

 no small corneous tooth on the inner side of the maxillae. All 

 these insects are winged, their body is most commonly square, their 

 thorax trapezoidal or semicircular, and concealing or receiving the 

 head. The antennae, usually inserted under a marginal projection 

 of the sides of the head, are short, more or less perfoliate or granose, 

 enlarge insensibly, or terminate in a club. The legs are only adapt- 

 ed for walking, and all the joints of the tarsi are entire, and termi- 

 nated by single hooks; the anterior tibiae are frequently broad and 

 triangular. Several males have the head furnished with horns. 

 Most of them inhabit the fungi on trees, or under the bark; some 

 live on the ground, under stones. 



In some, the head is completely exposed, and never entirely re- 

 ceived into a deep notch in the anterior of the thorax. This last is 

 sometimes trapezoidal or square, and at others almost cylindrical; 

 its sides, as well as those of the elytra, do not extend remarkably 

 beyond the body. 



This division will form the tribe of the DIAPERIALES, the type of 

 which is the genus 



DlAPERIS. 



In Diaperis properly so called, the maxillary palpi terminate in an almost 

 cylindrical joint, hardly thicker than the penultimate; and the anterior 

 tibiae, hardly or not at all wider than the following ones, are narrow, almost 

 linear, and slightly dilated at the extremity. 



The remaining genera of this tribe are Phaleria, Hypophlseus, Tetrato- 

 ma, Ekdonciy Sec. 



Our second tribe of the Taxicornes, the COSSYPHENES, consists 

 of Insects analogous. in form to the Peltis of Fabricius, and to seve- 

 ral Nitidulae and Cassidas: it is ovoid or sub-hemispherical, and 

 overlapped in its contour by the dilated or flattened sides of the tho- 

 rax and elytra; the head is sometimes entirely concealed under that 

 thorax, and at others received into an anterior emargination of the 

 same part. The last joint of the maxillary palpi is larger than the 

 preceding ones, and securiform. 



