COLEOPTERA. 
461 
ovoid and compressed club, composed of crowded joints, of wbich the 
middle one at least is much wider than it is long ; the third is longer 
than tlie second and fourth. 
The middle of the posterior margin of tlie thorax is dilated behind 
or lobate, and the superior extremit3r of the mentum terminated in a 
truncated or bidentated point*. In 
Cryptophagus, Herhst. Schoenh. — Dermestes, Lin. Fab. — Ips, Oliv. 
Lat. — Antherophagus, Knock, 
Tlie antennae are moniliform, their second joint as large as the 
preceding or larger, and terminating in a less abrupt and narrower 
club than in Dacne, and with intervals between its segments |. 
We now come to certain tribes in which the praesternum is fre- 
quently dilated anteriorly in the manner of a chin-cloth, and which 
differ from the preceding ones in their feet, which are either wholly 
or partially contractile ; the tarsi may be free, but the tibiae at least 
can be flexed on the thigh. The mandibles are short, and generally 
thick and dentated. The body is ovoid, thick, and covered with 
deciduous scales or hairs of various colours. The antennae are 
straight and usually shorter than the head and thorax. The head is 
plunged into the thorax as far as the eyes. The thorax is but slightly 
or not at all bordered, trapezoidal, and wider posteriorly ; the middle 
of its posterior margin is frequently somewhat prolonged or lobate. 
The larvae are pilose, and mostly feed on the exuviae or carcasses of 
animals. Several are very injurious to entomological collections. 
Those then in which the legs are not completely retractile, the 
tarsi being always free, and the tibiae elongated and narrow, form our 
seventh tribe, that of the Dermestixi, and the great genus 
Dermestes. 
The only insects of this tribe whose antennae do not present two 
distinct joints, and whose very short and interiorly inflated palpi 
afterwards terminate in a point, are those which form the 
Aspidiphorus, Ziegl. Dej. 
Their body is orbicular J. 
From among the species in which the antennae consist of eleven 
♦ See Fab., Syst. Eleut. 
+ See Schoenh., Synon. Insect., I, ii. p. 96. 
The antennae of the Antherophagi are proportionally thicker, composed of more 
transversal joints, and terminated almost gradually in a chib ; from the second to 
the eighth tliey are nearly equal. The Cryptophayus silaceus, Gyll., has a projection 
in the form of a tooth or horn on each side of the inferior surface of the head. 'The 
Triphylla of Megeid. and Dej. only differ from the Crytophagi in the number of their 
tai'sial joints. 
X Niildula orbicvlala, Gyllenh. 
