[oe 5 
| —— — 0 a r 
218 MR. A. MURRAY'S MONOGRAPH OF THE FAMILY OF NITIDULARLE. 
when it is so it furnishes a good generic character; but in most of the species there is 
great uniformity, it being usually bisinuate with a projecting tooth in the middle. 
Palpi.—The maxillary palpi vary but little. The terminal article is usually cylindrical, 
with the apex more or less acuminate ; and the trifling variations in it are not sufficient 
to furnish data for subdividing genera or sections. The labial palpi show greater varia- 
tion, and occasionally furnish characters which may be used for dividing smaller sections. 
Eyes.—The eyes are lateral and rounded. Considerable difference exists in their size 
and in the degree of coarseness of their granulation,—Jps, for example, having them very 
finely granulated, and most of the Nitidulide proper, coarsely. As better characters for 
distinction generally accompany this, it is not of much practical value. 
Thorax.—The Nitidularie comprise within their bounds two styles of form, which at 
first sight appear as unconnected and as widely separated as can well be imagined— 
the one an oblong, flat, depressed insect, often scarcely thicker than the piece of paper 
on which this page is printed, and the other a rounded, semiglobose insect like a 
Coccinella or a Liodes. In the parts in which we usually find change of structure 
explanatory of change of form we here find no difference : antennz, mandibles, maxille, 
mentum, paraglosse, cotyloid cavities of the limbs, &c., are all impressed with the 
same general character, and we have to seek for a defined character in the less seizable 
arrangements of the body itself. "Two characters have been made use of for this purpose— 
the one the projection or prolongation of the prosternum between the anterior coxse, 
and the other the application to or covering of the base of the elytra by the base of the 
thorax. 
These characters are not very satisfactory. In the first place, the meaning intended 
to be conveyed is not very clear to one who is not familiar with the subject; and even 
after we know what is meant, the characters in question are so much matters of degree, 
that it is often with difficulty that one can say whether they are present or not. Have 
Lobiopa, Lordites, and Gaulodes, for example, their prosternum prolonged behind be- 
tween the anterior coxze ? They are, to all ordinary apprehension, alike in this respect ; 
but Erichson says that Lordites and Gaulodes have, while Lobiopa has not. To my eye 
none of them have it. In Prometopia does the prothorax cover the base of the elytra ? 
Erichson and Leconte place it among those in which it does not ; perhaps they stretch a 
point to preserve it in its natural place; but the fact, especially in some newly-discovered 
species, is undoubtedly the reverse. 
An equally good definition could be drawn from the comparative convexity of the 
body—the Nitidulide proper being mostly oblong and depressed, and the Strongyline 
rounded and convex. Another way of saying the same thing (a way, however, which, 
like all these characters, leaves a sort of debateable ground between the two sections) 
is to take the comparative length of the thorax above and below. The true Nitidulide 
have the thorax nearly as long below as above; the Strongyline not nearly so much 80, 
perhaps not more than half (see figs. 6 & 7). This will be easily understood to be a 
necessary consequence of the more convex form of the body : as the segments of a circle 
are smaller as they approach the centre, and as the abdomen is usually not shorter than 
the back, the thorax is the part where the inner diminution must take place. It is owing 
