ORDER COLEOPTERA. 467 



body, ash or dirt colour, is very rugged or tubercular above. 

 The head is inclined, terminated by an angle, or going to a 

 point. The corslet is short, transversal, without lateral 

 hems, sinuous behind, with the anterior angles advanced, and 

 their thighs cover the under part of the head. These insects 

 produce a screaking noise, by a reiterated friction of the 

 pedicle of the mesothorax against the inner side of the cavity 

 of the corslet. They keep in the earth or sand, and appear 

 to gnaw the roots of vegetables. They form the genus 



Trox of Fab. and Olivier. 



Mr. Macleay the younger has separated them, under the 

 generic name of Phobervs, from those which have the sides 

 of the corslet depressed, dilated, and edged with spines, and 

 which are without wings. The posterior edge of the corslet 

 has on each side a strong emargination, and the hood is 

 rounded in front.* 



A third section, JCylophiti, will include the geotrupes of 

 Fabricius, and some of his cetoniae. Here the shield is 

 always distinct, and the elytra do not cover the hind end of 

 the abdomen. The hooks of the tarsi in many are unequal. 

 The antennae have always ten articulations, the last three of 

 which form a foliated knob, with the intermediate leaves 



* Trox Jiorridiis, Fab. Macl. Horae Entom. I. 137. Trox, of Fabricius, 

 do not change their place. See that author, Olivier, and Schoenher. 



The genera Cryptodus and McEchidiuSy which Mr. Macleay puts in his 

 family of Trogida, immediately after Phoberus, have the hind extremity 

 of the abdomen uncovered, and nine articulations in the antennae, cha- 

 racters vifhich seem to remove them from Trox. I suspect the Machi- 

 dise, by reason of the form and emargination of the labrum, and of some 

 other character, to be near Melolontha. The cryptodi are distinguished 

 from all other scarabaei by the mentum, which almost entirely covers the 

 mouth underneath, and even by the labial palpi being situated, as well as 

 the tongue, behind it. These two genera have been established on 

 Australasian insects, which I have not seen. 



2 H 2 



