SSi- NATURAL ARnAXGEMEXT OF INSECTS. 



with a similar structure, has the four first joints of the 

 tarsi with a long membranous appendage ; and in 

 TUIhx, the sexes of one have been considered general)^ 

 distinct species. In those which have but four dis- 

 tinct joints to the tarsi, there is a greater uniformity in 

 the general structure of the antennae, although ' Eno- 

 plium has its three terminal joints separated and ser- 

 rated. Some of the species of Clerus are parasites in 

 the nests of certain mason bees ; and the genus Thana- 

 simus occurs upon felled trees and timber, — its larva 

 preying upon those of many of the wood-feeding ge- 

 nera, as Apate, Bostrichus, Anobium, &c. They are 

 all very active insects ; and some of the latter, in the 

 distribution of their colours, and general form, have a 

 remarkable resemblance to the hymenopterous Mutillce, 

 and whence they have derived their specific names. 

 All these insects have the head rather wider than the 

 thorax ; the latter cylindrical, and constricted at its J 

 base, or swoln about the centre ; although some, as Co- 

 rynetes and Nccrohia, have the sides of the latter slightly 

 margined. These are found, usually, 'among heaps of 

 bones, or upon dry carrion ; and one of the latter is 

 celebrated for being the cause of saving Latreille's life 

 during the sanguinary period of the French revolution ; 

 in as far as the circumstance of its capture, in his pri- 

 son cell, interested, through the medium of the surgeon 

 that attended him, some influential scientific men, who 

 stayed his debarkation to the colonies in a ship that 

 was atrociously foredoomed to perish, with its cargo of 

 transports, almost within sight of their native land. The ^ 

 largest species occur in the Mexican genus Cymatodera, ,} 

 and the universal OpUiis. Europe is rich in species of ' 

 the family ; but New Holland appears to be their me- 

 tropolis, if we may judge from the numbers, and the 

 forms, we have seen recently imported thence. Very 

 many genera are still uncharacterised in this interesting 

 group. [(290-296.) W. E. Sh.] 



