216 MR. A. MURRAY'S MONOGRAPH OF THE FAMILY OF NITIDULARLE. 
wards obliquely, or straight on each side of the mentum. The presence or absence of 
this channel is a useful character, but its degree of obliquity 
is of more doubtful value. 
Mandibles.—These are too variable to furnish good sec- 
tional characters ; very generally they are bidentate at the 
apex, but sometimes they are simple, and frequently they 
have a number of small teeth following the two larger 
ones. In Cilleus they are multidentate; and in some of H 
the species of pide the left mandible is bidentate, while Underside of head of Lordites villosus, 
the right is simple, the apex of the latter being received mar ul EM 
between the two teeth of the former. 
JMaaille.—The maxillee furnish useful characters for separating the larger groups of 
Clavicorns. They are constructed on three separate plans—two of them bilobed, and 
one with only a single lobe. The Brachypteride have two lobes to the maxille. The 
remainder of the Nitidularie have only one; and the Clavicorns which follow them 
have two lobes. The double lobes of the Brachypteride are unusual, and differ from those 
of the Trogositide, Colydiide, &c. in this respect—that the exterior lobe is not furnished 
with hairs, but has a small vesicle near the point, whilst in the latter both lobes are fur- 
nished with hairs in the usual way. Fig. 2 shows the form of the maxillz in the Brachy- 
pteride, fig. 3 in the Nitidulide proper, fig. 4in the genus Rhizophagus, and fig. 5 in the 
Colydiide. 
Fig. 1. 
A 
Cd 
Y 
2 
a 
Fig. 3. 
Fig. 2. 
WY 
MO Braeken gaiii aea سي ب الل‎ epe Biona rnc 
Ligula and Paraglosse—The ligula and paraglosse of this family have given rise to 
some discussion and considerable difference of opinion among entomologists, from the 
fact that they usually have a structure developed which does not exist in other insects. 
I would refer those who wish to study the relations of these parts to M. Lacordaire’s 
observations on the subject in his * Histoire des Insectes Coléoptéres,’ vol. ii. p. 288, and 
to M. Jacquelin Duval’s remarks on the notes to pages 134, 136, and 139 in the * Genera 
des Coléoptéres d'Europe, vol. ii. I shall here confine myself to stating the result 
of my own observations. In the Nitidularie the ligula is usually a narrow, pro- 
jeeting, oblong, ovate or triangular piece, placed in the mouth, next the mentum: that 
is, supposing the insect to be walking on the ground, it is nearer the ground than 
the paraglossæ or their lobes. Behind this lie the true paraglossw, soldered to it. 
