8 Rev. W. Kirby on Clinidium. 



and ascertain whether the lower lobe is unguiform, and the upper palpi- 

 form, which would decide the question, and as the other characters lead to 

 other groups, it would be rash to affirm that it belongs to any of these 

 tribes. Indeed its short, rather thick, legs, and its short tarsi are quite un- 

 like these limbs in the predaceous Beetles, and sh^w that it is not swift 

 of foot ; if it has any eyes, likewise, which seems very doubtful, they 

 are not prominent, as in the Eutrechina, and the antennae are quite dis- 

 similar. 



Its aspect is that of a heteromerous beetle, belonging either to Latrellle's 

 Melasoma, or his Taxicornes, but we soon discover a neck which would 

 lead us to the Trachelides, of which, however, it exhibits no other cha- 

 racter ; and indeed when we examine the structure of its antennae, the 

 terminal joint of its palpi, and its prothorax, we see clearly that it can 

 belong to no tribe of that, as it now stands, artificial section. 



It exhibits also some general resemblance to the Rhynchophorous genus 

 Brentus, which, I believe, is also a timber devourer, but it seems to me still 

 nearer to Cucujus, Fab., as, for instance. Cue. rufus, which has a pedun- 

 culated head, and another North American species, which, like Clinidium, 

 is pentaraerous. It has not, however, the depressed body of Cucujus ; 

 its head, prothorax, and antennae, differ, and no other coleopterous in- 

 sect yet known, agrees with it in the absence of reticulated eyes : so that 

 it is the only known individual that strictly verifies the old proverb, " As 

 " blind as a beetle." 



Till we know how it is circumstanced with respect to its maxillae and 

 palpi we cannot decide with confidence upon its natural station. 



Clinidium Guildingii. 



Long. Corp. Lin. 3. 



IJab. in Insula Caribbea St. Vincent, in arbore putrescenti. 



Desc. Corpus lineare, supra partibus elevatis glaberrimis nitidissi 

 mis, aterrimis ; depressis vero plerumque subtomentosis, opacis, sub- 

 einereis. Caput facie plagis elevatis septem ; intermedia rhomboidea, vel 

 ex rhomboideo lanceolata, cum aliis duabus parvis triangularibus anterius 

 ordinate • lateralibus internis quadrato-oblongis, externis oculos simulan- 



