414 
INSECTA. 
These Insects, when touched, or while they run, elevate the ex- 
tremity of their abdomen and flex it in every direction. They also 
use it to push their wings under the elytra. The tarsi of their two 
anterior legs are frequently broad and dilated, and their coxae as 
well as tliose of the intermediate legs are very large. They are 
usually found in earth, dung, and excrementitious matters ; some live 
in mushrooms, rotten wood, or under stones ; others are only met 
with in aquatic localities. Some very small ones keep on flowers. 
They are all voracious, run with great swiftness, and take Aving very 
promptly. 
The larva bears a close resemblance to the perfect Insect : it has 
the figure of an elongated cone, the base of which is occupied by 
the very large head ; the last ring is prolonged into a tube, and is 
accompanied by tAA^o conical and hairy appendages. It feeds on the 
same matters as the perfect Insect. 
The first stomach of the Staphylini is small and Avithout plicae ; 
the second is A'^ery long and pilose ; the intestine is extremely short *. 
It is a very extensive genus, Avhich v^e Avill divide into five 
sections. 
In the first, or that of the Fissilabra, the head is completely ex- 
posed and separated from the thorax, Avhich is sometimes square or 
semi-oval, and at others rounded, or cordiform and truncated, by a 
neck or sensible strangulation. The labrum is pi’ofoundly cleft and 
forms tAA'o lobes. Such is the 
OxYPORUs, Fah. 
Where the maxillary palpi are filiform, and those attached to the 
labium are terminated by a very large and lunate joint. The an- 
tennee are large, perfoliate and compressed ; the anterior tarsi are 
not dilated ; the last joint and then the second are the longest. They 
inhabit the Boleti and Agarici. 
O.rufus; Staphylinus rufus,\t.', Panz. Faun. Insect. Germ., 
XVI, 19. About three lines in length ; fulvous; head, pectus, 
extremity and interior margin of the elytra, as AA’^ell as the anus, 
black f. 
Astrap/eus, Grav. 
The four palpi terminated by a larger and nearly triangular joint ; 
anterior tarsi greatly dilated, the first and last joints the longest 
In the 
* According to M. Dufour, the only essential difference between their alimentary 
canal and that of the carnivorous Coleoptera consists in the absence of the crop. 
Their biliary vessels are inserted at the same lateral point, and, at least in some 
species, present near the middle a knot or vesicle, not observed in any other Insects. 
Their sexual apparatus differs greatly from that of the carnivorous Coleoptera. See 
Ann. des Sc. Nat., Octob. 1825. 
f Add 0. maxillosus, Fab. ; Panz., Ib., 20. The remaining Oxypori of Fabricius 
belong to subgenera of our fourth section. See Oliv. Encyc. Method., genus 
Oxypore, and the Coleoptera Microptera, Gravenhorst. 
t Staphylinus ul/ni, Oliv. ; Ross., Faun. Etrusc., I, v, 6 ; Panz., Ib., LXXXVIII, 
4 ; Latr., Gener. Crust, et Insect., I, 284. 
