THE LAMELLICORNES. 207 



CHAP. VI. 



COLEOPTERA, continued. 



THE LAMELLICORNES. 



(180.) WE may now take a more particular survey of 

 these tribes ; and endeavour to resolve these, also, into 

 their respective families. The LAMELLICORNES, or 

 beetles with clavate and lamellate antennae, and five- 

 jointed tarsi, stand as the pre-eminent tribe of the 

 coleopterous order : they may be further recognised by 

 the compression of the tibiae, or shanks, which are more 

 or less toothed on their exterior edge. The antennae 

 are remarkably short ; and so much bent, either towards 

 the middle (as in the Lucanida'), or at the club (as in 

 Cetonia), that the two portions form an angle more or 

 less acute. No general characters can be more definite ; 

 and it is only in the most aberrant divisions that we 

 find any material exceptions. The habits of all this 

 tribe are herbivorous ; that is, they feed entirely upon 

 vegetable matter, either in a green or decomposed state ; 

 while, amid great diversity of form, size, and colour, 

 we find some of the most splendid as well as the most 

 bulky Coleoptera yet discovered. The Cetonia aurata, 

 or the common rose beetle, may be taken as the type of 

 the whole. A glance at this beautiful, although com- 

 mon insect, will convey a better idea of the general 

 shape of the lamellicorn beetles, than the most laboured 

 description. As to their history and natural arrangement, 

 we owe all that is of permanent value to the admi- 

 rable work of Mr. MacLeay. Assisted by his arrange- 

 ment of a part of this tribe, but adhering to those 

 general laws we have traced so extensively in other 

 portions of the animal world, we shall now lay before 

 the reader the result of our own researches in this most 



