COLEOPTERA. 405 



subgenus is distinguished from the preceding one. The head is a little 

 wider than the thorax. The antennae of the males are sometimes irregular 

 and even semipectinated. 



C. vesicatorius. (The Spanish Fly.) From six to ten lines in length, of 

 a glossy golden-green, with simple, regular, black antennae. This Insect is 

 well known from its medical uses. 



It appears in France, near the time of the summer solstice, and is more 

 particularly found about the Ash and Lilac, on the leaves of which it feeds; 

 it diffuses a highly penetrating odour. The larva lives in the ground and 

 gnaws the roots of plants. In the United States of America, the species 

 called by Fabricius the vitatta, (our Potato-fly}^ and which abounds on the 

 potato plants, is applied to the same uses as the one of which we are 

 speaking. 



The third general section of the Coleoptera, that of the TETKA- 

 MERA, consists exclusively of those in which all the tarsi are quad- 

 riarticulated. 



All these Insects live on vegetable matters. The feet of their 

 larvae are usually very short, and they are even wanting or are re- 

 placed by mammillae in a great number. The perfect Insect is 

 found on the flowers or leaves of plants. 



FAMILY I. 



RHYNCHOPHORA(l). 



This family is distinguished by the entire prolongation of the head, 

 which forms a sort of snout or proboscis. 



The abdomen is bulky in most of them, the antennas geniculate, 

 and frequently clavate. The penultimate joint of the tarsi is almost 

 always bilobate. The posterior thighs are dentated in several. 



The larva? have an oblong body, and resemble a small, very soft, 

 white worm; their head is squamous, and they are destitute of feet, 

 or in lieu of them there are merely small mammillae. They gnaw 

 various parts of plants. Several live exclusively in the interior of 

 their fruit or seeds, and frequently do us much injury. Their chry- 

 salides are enclosed in a shell. Many of the Rhynchophora, when 

 very abundant within certain limits, are even very noxious in their 

 perfect state. They tap the buds or leaves of various cultivated 



(1) Long-snouted. 



