OF THE ORDER COLEOPTERA. 26l 



nera. Thus in the cicindelae there is constantly seen in the 

 bend of their articulation a more transparent space, bounded 

 by a sort of fibrous ring, representing an eye, or circular 

 hole. An elastic ligament brings back the wing to the state 

 of extension or flexion, pretty nearly like the articulation of 

 the leg in the birds called grallae. 



The tarsi of the coleoptera have been studied with very 

 great attention by entomologists, being of so great value in 

 determining the principal subdivisions of this very numerous 

 order. M. Dumeril makes a curious remark, that the num- 

 ber of articulations to the tarsi is constantly the same in the 

 middle and the anterior feet, so that it is sufficient to count 

 the number of the articulations of the anterior feet to know 

 that of the middle feet, and reciprocally. 



The name of Cicindel.e, a Latin word employed by the 

 Romans to designate a brilliant insect, has been employed by 

 the majority of authors to indicate insects very different from 

 each other. Sometimes, and most commonly, it has been 

 applied to the glow-worm, and sometimes to the cetoniae, the 

 cantharides, the nitidulae, and all the insects with metallic 

 reflections. Geofiroy, remarking that the cantharides of the 

 shops had been erroneously termed cicindelae, and that they 

 had been ranged in the same genus with the telephori which 

 have not the same number of articulations on the tarsi, 

 thought he would do well to separate the cantharides from 

 the telephori, to which he gave this name of cicindela, 

 " which," says he, " was formerly that of a genus approach- 

 ing to the glow-worm, and, perhaps, of this same genus to 

 which we now restore it," Our author, however, was not 

 ignorant that Linnaeus had assigned this name of cicindela 

 to the insects now under our immediate consideration. 



The cicindelae are very carnivorous coleoptera, ornamented 

 most frequently with brilliant golden colours. They are met 

 with in sandy places, where they run with the utmost swift- 



