360 IN9ECTA. 



Dasytes, Payk. Fab. — Dermestes, Lin. 



D. csendeus, Fab.; Panz., Faun. Insect. Germ., XCVI, 10. 

 Three lines in length; elongated; green or bluish; glossy and 

 pilose. Very common near Paris on flowers in the fields. 



D. Ires noir, Oliv., Col. II, 21, ii, 28; Dermcstes hirfus,'L. 

 Somewhat larger and less oblong; all bfeck and densely pilose; 

 a much stouter and strongly hooked spine at the base of the an- 

 terior tarsi in one of the two sexes. On the Grasses(l). 

 Others, the crotchets of whose tarsi are unidentated, like those 

 of Dasytes, to which they are closely allied, and with which 

 Olivier confounds them, are removed from that subgenus by the an- 

 tennae being shorter than the head and thorax, and having the third 

 joint at least double the length of the second. Their body is less 

 elongated, and is more solid; the head is slightly prolonged and 

 narrowed before, andthe thorax semiorbicular and truncated ante- 

 riorly. They have a certain degree of resemblance to the Silphae 

 of Linnaeus. Such are those which form the 



Zygia, Fab. 



In which the fourth and following joints of the antennae almost 

 form an elongated, compressed, and serrated club; most of the joints 

 transversal; thorax very convdx. 



Z. oblonga, Fab. Found in Spain and Egypt, in the interior 

 of houses, and more particularly, according to Count Dejean, 

 in granaries. It is also sometimes found in France in the de- 

 partments of the Pyrenees Orientales. A second species has 

 been discovered in Nubia. 



Melvris, Fab. 



In Melyris, properly so called, the antennae insensibly enlarge, 

 but without forming a club; their joints are less dilated laterally and 

 are almost isometrical. The thorax is less convex(2). 



In the remaining Melyrides the maxillary palpi are terminated by 

 a larger and securiform joint. This character, together with the 

 shortness of the first joint of the tarsi, and some other considera- 



(1) For the other species, see Fabriciiis; the Melyres of Oljvier, 6 — 17; Panz., 

 Ind. Entom. p. 143; Lat., Gener. Crust, et Insect. I, p. 264; Germ , Insect. Spec. 

 Nov. Brazil produces tolerably large ones, some of which form a particular divi- 

 sion. 



(2) M. viridis. Fab.; Oliv., Col. II, 21, i, \;—M. abdominalis. Fab.; Oliv., lb., I, 

 7; Opatrum granulafum, Fab.; Coqueb., Illust. Icon. Insect., Ill, xxx, 7. 



