510 INSECTA, 



These insects are found upon flowers and plants, or on the ground ; they depress the head whilst 

 creeping along, and fall to the ground when alarmed, applying the feet to the outside of the body, [which 

 has particular impressions for their reception]. 



De Geer describes the larva of one of the species, E. undulatus : it is long, nearly cylindrical ; furnished 



with short antenna;, palpi, six feet, twelve scaly segments, the last of which forms a flattened rounded 



plate, angular at the sides, with two recurved points at the end ; beneath is a large fleshy retractile 



lobe, which performs the office of a foot. It lives in soft rotten wood and in the ground. It appears, 



also, that the larva of E. striatus, Fab., devours the roots of corn, and often does much injury where it 



propagates extensively. [The Wire-worm, so well and objectionably known to the English farmer, is 



, I the larva of one of the commonest of our species, Elater {Cataphagus) sputalor, 



'^y ^.f^^^ "^ which is probably but a variety of the E. lineatus, mentioned above ; this larva is 



jr^vT--2^^ much more slender than that described by De Geer, and has the terminal segment of 



■/^^\^^, the body entire and long, (resembling, in fact, a bit of wire,) with two dark points 



I^S^jtSS^ ^^ ^^^ ^'^^^ above.] 



Fie. 58.— EUter sputalor We may refer the different subgenera which have been formed in this tribe to two principal 



anil Its larva. divisions ; thosB in which the antenna? are entirely lodged in the canals on the under-side 



of the prothorax compose the first. 



Galba, Latr., (having the mandibles terminated in a simple point), and 



Eucne.nis, Arh., (in which they are bifid at the tip), have the antennae received on each side of the prosternum 

 in a longitudinal canal close to the lateral margins of the thorax, and the basal joints of the tarsi are always without 

 elongated lobes beneath. (See the monograph of the last genus, by Count Mannerheim.) 



Adelocera, Latr., has filiform antenna; ; the tarsal joints have no elongated lobes, and the two fore-legs are lodged 

 in repose in lateral impressions on the under-side of the thorax. Elater oralis, and others from East India. 



Lissomus, Dalm. (Lissodes, Latr., Drapetes, Meg.), has also the antennae of equal size throughout ; tarsal joints 

 entire, but with the lobes on their under edges advanced like small plates ; the head is exposed. See Dalman, 

 Ephem. Ent. 



Chelonarium, Fab., has the seven terminal joints of the antennae minute, and the body ovoid. fE-\otic insects of 

 small size.] 



Throscus, Latr. (Trixagus, Kug.), has the antennae terminated by a three-jointed mass, and lodged in a cavity on 

 the under-side of the thorax ; the penultimate joint of the tarsi is bifid, and the mandibles are entire at the tip. 

 Type, Elater dermestoides, Linn., Dermestes adstrictor. Fab. [a rare British insect, of minute size and dull 

 brown colour, but especially interesting on account of its relations, being considered by some authors as allied to 

 the Dermestidae from the structure of its antennae. Its larva, according to Latreille, feeds upon the wood of 

 the oak]. 

 Our second division of this tribe comprises those species which have the antennae always free. 

 Cerophytum, Latr., has the four basal joints of the tarsi short and triangular, and the penultimate joint bifid : 

 the antennae of the males are branched. 

 All the other genera have the joints of the tarsi cylindrical and entire. 



Cryptostoma, Dej., has the inner terminal angle of the third and seven following joints of the antennae, prolonged 

 into a tooth with a straight branch at the base of the third joint. Elater denticornis, Fab., Cayenne. 



Nematodes, Latr., has the body nearly linear, and the antennae have the second and four following joints reverse- 

 conic, and the five terminal joints thicker and nearly perfoliated. Eucnemis fdum, Mann. 



Hemirhipus, Latr., has the male antennas terminated like a fan. These are exotic [and of large size]. Elater 

 flabellicornis, Fabr. 



Ctenicerus, Latr., has the male antennae pectinated throughout their whole length. Elater pectinicornis, 

 Latr., [a common British species]. 



Elater proper, has the male antennae simply serrated. Elater noctiliiciis, Linn., South America, — about an inch 

 long ; of a dark brown colour, with two pale dots on the thorax, which emit a very strong light during the night, 

 sufficient to enable a person to read the smallest writing, especially when several of the insects are placed together. 

 The Indian women ornament their head-dresses with these insects. Brown asserts that all the inner parts of the 

 insect are luminous, and that it can suspend its light at will ; but M. Lacordaire informs me that the principal 

 reservoir of the phosphorescent matter is situated on the under-side, at the junction of the abdomen with the 

 tliorax. One of these insects, which had been carried in wood to Paris, in the larva state, caused great alarm to 

 tlie inhabitants of the Faubourg St. Antoine, who were ignorant of the cause of the light. 



Campylus, Fischer, Exopthalmiis, Latr., differs from all the preceding in having the head free, and the eyes large 

 and globular ; the body is long and linear. Elater linearis, Linn. 



Phyllocerus, Latr., is distinguished by having the palpi filiform [not clavate], and antennae pectinated after the 

 fourth joint. [P.flavipennis, south of Europe, figured by Guerin in his Iconographie.'] 



[The family Elaterida?, on account of the general uniformity of their appearance and dullness of their colours 

 have only recently any attention in respect to their structural distribution into genera and subgenera. Dr. 

 Eschscholtz, however, in the second volume of Thongs Entomologischc Archiv. ; Latreille, in the Annals of the 

 Entomological Society of France for 1834, and still more recently, Dr. Germar, in the second number of his 



