318 CLASS INSECTA. 



Throscus, Lat. Trixagus, Kugel. Gyllenh. JElater, Lin., 



Is distinguished from all those of this tribe by its antennae 

 terminating in a club of three articulations, and lodged in a 

 lateral and inferior cavity of the corslet. The penultimate 

 articulation of the tarsi is bifid. The point of the mandibles 

 is entire.* 



Our second division of this tribe will comprehend all the 

 elaterides whose antennae are always uncovered or external. 



We shall detach from them at first, those whose last 

 articulation of the palpi, especially of the maxillary, is 

 much larger than the preceding, almost in the form of 

 an axe. 



A single sub-genus, that of 



Cerophytum, Lat., 



Is removed from the following by its tarsi, the first four 

 articulations of which are short, in the form of a triangle, 

 and the penultimate articulation of which is bifid. 



The antennae of the males are branched on the internal 

 side, the base of the third articulation, and of the following, 

 being prolonged into a broad branch, rounded at the end. 

 Those of the females are serrated. -f* 



In all the other sub genera, the articulations of the tarsi 

 are almost cylindrical, and entire. 



Sometimes the head sinks up to the eyes in the corslet. 



* Elater dermestoides, Linn. ; E. Clavicornis, Oliv. Col. H. 51, VIIL 85, 

 a. b. ; Dermestes adstrictor, Fab. Panz. Faun. Insect. Germ. LXXV. 15. 

 Its larva lives in the wood of the oak. 



•f- Lat. Gen. Crust, et Insect. IV. 375. 'Ihe Melasis Sphondyloides of 

 Germar, Faun. Insect. Europ. XI. 5, has a great affinity' with the female 

 of the species, which serves as type. The Melasis picoa of Paliset de 

 Beauvois, Insect. d'Afr. et d'Amer. VII. 1, has also some analogy with 

 Cerophytum. 



