ON THE SERRICORNES. 373 



two small points. In the month of June these insects quit 

 the nymph state, and appear under the form of the perfect 

 telephorus. 



The Melyrides, proper, which may be considered as the 

 type of the tribe so called, are usually, as it would appear, 

 found on flowers, and are in general peculiar to Africa, more 

 especially to the Cape of Good Hope. Their other habits 

 are utterly unknown. 



The Malachii are very common insects, which live gene- 

 rally on flowers. Some authors have, however, observed, that 

 they do not content themselves with the honeyed juice of 

 plants, and that they attack other insects for the purpose of 

 feeding on them. Their habits are conformable to those of 

 the telephori, but they present a singularity (as also does the 

 last mentioned sub-genus) too remarkable not to deserve men- 

 tion. When they are taken in the hand, we observe issuing 

 from the sides of the corslet and belly, two vesicles, very 

 red, inflated, soft and irregular, composed of three lobes. 

 These four vesicles contract, re-enter the body of the insect 

 as soon as it has ceased to be touched, and leave in the same 

 place only marks of a red spot. Some French writers have 

 given to these appendages the appellation of " cocardes.'''' It 

 is difficult to satisfy curiosity respecting the function or utility 

 of this very singular part. These insects have sometimes 

 been deprived of one or all of these vesicles, without having 

 appeared less agile, or less lively. Some species have, at the 

 extremity of their elytra, an emargination with a projecting 

 point or crook in the middle. This character appears pecu- 

 liar to only one of the sexes. 



The larvae of the malachii are not exactly known. Never- 

 theless it is presumable that they live in wood, for the perfect 

 insect, newly issued from the nymph, is frequently found in 

 timber-yards. 



We now come to the division of Clekii, which contains the 



