10 INSECTA. 
ground, fly particularly during the evening, after sun-set, and coun- 
terfeit death when seized. According to M. Leon Dufour, the ali- 
mentary canal of Geotrupes, one of the principal subgenera of this 
section, is somewhat shorter than in Copris, and the stomach presents 
no vestige of papillee *. 
Here—Geotrupides, Mac Leay—the labium is terminated by two 
lobes, or salient ligule, the mandibles are generally salient and arcu- 
ated; the labrum is either wholly or partially exposed, and the an- 
tennze in most of them are composed of eleven joints. The body is 
black or reddish, and the elytra smooth or simplyestriated. The males 
generally have horns, or differ in other external characters from the 
females. They feed more particularly on excrementitious matters. 
The antennze of some are composed of nine joints. 
Aferarta, Lat.—Apruopivs, Fab. 
The labrum short, transversal, scarcely apparent and entire ; ter- 
minal point of the mandibles bifid; internal lobe of the maxille cor- 
neous and bidentated ; the body short and inflated ; thorax transver- 
sal; abdomen gibbous; the four posterior tibze thick and incised, the 
two last terminated by two compressed and almost elliptical or spatu- 
liform spurs; the two anterior tibize have no tooth on the inner side ; 
the posterior thighs are the largest +. 
Curon, Mac Leay.—Diosomus, Dalm.—Sinovenvron, Fab. 
The Chirones, in their antennal club, which is rather semi-pecti- 
niform than foliaceous, approach the Lamellicornes of the second 
tribe, where in fact they have been placed by M. Mac Leay; but in 
the ensemble of their other characters they belong to this section. 
Their labium is broad, ciliate, quadridentate, and completely exposed. 
Their mandibles are robust, in the form of an elongated triangle, 
and have two teeth on the inner side. The two maxillary lobes are 
coriaceous and without any kind of armature. The body is narrow, 
elongated, and almost cylindrical; the thorax is longitudinal and se- 
parated from the abdomen by a deep strangulation; the abdomen is 
elongated, and the anterior tibize are wide, digitated, and furnished 
on the inner side, after the spur, with a tooth, silky at the end. The 
thighs are lenticular, and the two anterior are the largest. There is 
a transverse range of small tubercles on the anterior extremity of the 
head f. 
Those of others are composed of eleven joints |}. 
Some are distinguished from all others by the antennal club in the 
form of a reversed cone, which consists of joints or leaflets contorted 
* See Ann. des Sc. Nat. III, p. 234. 
+ Psammodius arenarius, Gyll., Insee. Suec. I, p. 6; Scarabeus globosus, Panz,, 
Faun. Insect. Germ., XXXVII, 2; Aphodius arenarius, Fab. 
t Sinodendron digitatum, Fab.; Chiron digitatus, Mac Leay, Hor. Entom., I, 
p- 107; Diasomus digitatus, Dalm., Ephem. Entom., I, p, 4. 
|| This supputation is sometimes doubtful, inasmuch as it is not always easy to 
distinguish the joint that precedes the club, and that it may, apparently, seem con- 
founded with the first of the club itself. The base of the second also forms a sort of 
knot or rotula that may be taken for a joint. 
