COLEOPTERA. 
439 
SiLis, Meg. Dej. Charp. 
This subgenus only differs from Telephorus in the thorax, which 
is emarginated posteriorly on each side, and has underneath — at 
least in the S. spinicollis — a little coriaceous appendage terminated 
by a club, whose extremity, probably more membranous, in the dried 
specimen has the appearance of a joint. A species, the ruhricolliSf 
is figured by M. Toussaint de Charpentier in his Hor. Entom., 
p. 194, 195, vi. 7- 
Malthinus, Lat. Schoen. — Necydalis, Geoff. 
The palpi terminated by an ovoid joint; head narrow behind; 
elytra, in several, shorter than the abdomen. On flowers, and par- 
ticularly on trees *. 
In the third tribe of the Malacodermi, or the Melyrides, we find 
the palpi most commonly short and filiform ; mandibles emarginated 
at the point ; the body usually narrow and elongated ; the head only 
covered at base by a flat or but slightly convex thorax, generally 
square, or elongated and quadrilateral ; joints of the tarsi entire, and 
the hooks of the last one unidentated or bordered with a membrane. 
The antennee are usually serrated, and, in the males of some species, 
even pectinated. 
Most of them are very active, and are found on flowers and leaves. 
This tribe, which is a mere division of the genera Cantharis and 
Dermestes of Linnaeus, will form the genus 
Melyris, Fab. 
In some, the palpi are of equal thickness throughout. 
Here, under each anterior angle of the thorax, and on each side of 
the base of the abdomen, we observe a retractile, dilatable vesicle in 
the form of a cockade, which is protruded by the animal when 
alarmed, and whose use is unknown. The body is shorter in pro- 
portion than in the following subgenus, wider and more depressed ; 
the thorax wider than it is long. Under each crotchet, at the end 
of the tarsi, is a membranous appendage resembling a tooth. 
Malachius, Fab. Oliv. — Cantharis, Lin. 
One of the sexes, in each species, furnished with an appendage in 
the form of a hook, at the extremity of each elytron, which is seized 
from behind by an individual of the opposite sex, with its mandibles, 
in order to arrest the former when it attempts to escape, or moves too 
rapidly. The first joints of the antennae are frequently dilated and 
irregular in the males. They are all prettily coloured. 
BI, ceneus; Cantharis (xnea, L.; Panz., Ib. ; X, 2. Three 
lines in length ; glossy green ; margin of the elytra red ; head, 
yellow anteriorly. 
* Lat. Gen. Crast. et Insect. I, 261 ; Schoenh., Id. II, p. 73 ; Panz,, Id,, p. 73. 
The Teleph. Uguttatus and minimus of Olivier belong to this genus. 
