386 CLASS INSECTA. 



extremity, and but little bent. The maxillary palpi are ter- 

 minated by a very small and pointed articulation. The 

 corslet is almost always globular, and the abdomen, almost 

 ovoid, is proportionally shorter than that of Mastigus.* 



In all the following clavicornes, the head is generally sunk 

 in the corslet, and the maxillary palpi are never at once as 

 much advanced, and club-formed ; the whole of their phy- 

 siognomy, moreover, presents differences in other respects. 



The genus hister will form our second tribe, which we 

 shall name with the Baron Paykull, who has studied it so 



well, HISTEROIDES. 



In these, the four hinder feet are more separated from 

 each other at their origin than the anterior two, a character, 

 which of itself alone distinguishes this tribe from all the 

 others of the same family. The feet are contractile, and 

 the external side of the legs is denticulated, or spinous. 

 The antennae are almost always bent, and terminated in a 

 solid knob, or composed of very close articulations. The 

 body is of a very solid consistence, most frequently squared 

 or parallelipiped, with the praesternum often dilated in front, 

 and the elytra truncated. The mandibles are strong, ad- 

 vanced, and often of unequal bulk. The palpi are almost 

 always filiform, or in a slight degree thicker towards their 

 extremity, and terminated by an ovaliform or ovoid arti- 

 culation. 



* ScydmcBnus Helwigii, Lat. ; Anthicus Helivigii, Fab. ; Notoxus minutus. 

 Faun. Insect. Gerna. XXIII. 5;- S. Godarti, Lat. I. viii. 6 ; S. hirticollis, 

 Gyll. ; — S, minutus, ejus.; Anthicus viinutus. Fab. See SchcEnh. Insect. I. 

 ii. p. 57. M. Duros, garde-du-corps of the King, who has a peculiar 

 talent for discovering the smaller species of our environs, has found in an 

 ant-hill, the S. Clavatus of M. Gyllenhall. This fact, and some others, 

 confirm me in the opinion that these insects come with the Pselaphi, at 

 the end of the Brachelytra. 



