COLEOPTERA. 407 



BRACK YTCERUS. 



Where all the joints of the tarsi are entire and without brush or pellet be- 

 neath. Their short and but slightly geniculate antennae present externally 

 but nine joints, the last of which forms the club. They are destitute of 

 wings, and their body is very scabrous or uneven. These Insects are 

 peculiar to the south of Europe and to Africa, live on the ground and ap- 

 pear very early in the spring. The women of Ethiopia use one species as 

 a sort of amulet; they pass a string through its body and hang it round their 

 neck. 



CURCULIO. 



Where almost the whole under part of the tarsi is furnished with short and 

 stiff hairs,, forming pellets, and their penultimate joint is deeply bilobate. 

 Their antennae are composed of eleven joints, or even of twelve if we count 

 the false one, which sometimes terminates them, the last of which form the 

 club. 



As this genus, although much more restricted than in the Linnean sys- 

 tem, still comprises numerous species discovered since the time of that 

 naturalist, various savans, Germar and Schcenherr in particular, have divided 

 it into many others. 



C. imperialis t Fab. (The Diamond-Beetle). A brilliant golden-green 

 with two black and longitudinal bands on the thorax; ranges of golden- 

 green impressed points on the elytra, with black intervals. 



The Longirostres, or those whose antennae are inserted beyond the origin 

 of the mandibles, and frequently near the middle of the proboscis, which 

 is usually long, comprise, with some exceptions, the genera Lixus, Khyn- 

 chaenus, and Colandra of Fabricius. 



In the two first the antennae present ten joints at least, but most commonly 

 eleven or twelve, of which the three last at least form the club. 



Lixus, Fab. 



The Lixi almost resemble the Cleoni in their organs of manducation, as 

 well as in the elongated fusiform club of their antennae, the narrow and 

 elongated figure of their body, and the armature of their tibiae. 



RHYNCH^JNUS, Fab. 

 The tthynchaeni present no such ensemble of characters. 



Sometimes the legs are contiguous at base, and there is no sternal fossula 

 for the reception of the proboscis. 



Some never leap, and their antennae are composed of eleven or twelve 

 joints. The subgenera are numerous. 



The remaining Longirostres have generally nine joints at most in the 

 antennae, and the last, or two last at most, form a club with a coriaceous 

 epidermis and spongy extremity. They feed, at least while in the state of 

 larvae, on seeds or ligneous substances. 



