COLEOPTERA. 411 



vated grounds, as it attacks the scarcely visible buds and leaves 

 of plants, and cuts them off with the trenchant forceps of 

 its mandibles, a habit which in Hungary, where it does great 

 injury to the vines, has caused it to be styled the Schneider, 

 or Cutter. As the pectus projects greatly underneath the abdo- 

 men, and the hind legs seem to be inserted very near the anus, it 

 is a good climber, and in descending moves backwards. After 

 having amputated the heart of a plant, it descends with its prey, 

 which it transports to its hole. Each of these holes, which are 

 made in the earth, is occupied by a pair, but in the nuptial 

 season a strange male frequently claims admittance. A furious 

 combat is the consequence, during which the female closes the 

 entrance of the domicil, and keeps continually pushing her com- 

 panion forwards. The battle only ceases with the death or flight 

 of the intruder. The same savant describes — Ibid., p. 136, 140 

 — three other species hitherto unknown. 

 In all the other Arenicoli the antennal club is composed of the 

 ordinarily shaped leaflets, laid one on another, or like the leaves of a 

 book. They form our subgenus Geotrupes, or the Scarabseus, Fab., 

 from which the following subgenera have since been detached. 



Those, in v/hich the antennal club is oval or ovoid, and of which 

 the edges of the leaflets are totally or partially exposed even when 

 contracted, form two of them. In 



Geotrupes, Lat. 



Or Geotrupes properly so called, the labrum is a transverse 

 square, entire or simply dentated; the mandibles are arcuated, highly 

 compressed, dentated at the extremity, and frequently sinuous on the 

 exterior side and the maxillae furnished with a very thick fringe of 

 hairs; the last joint of the maxillary palpi is not larger than the pre- 

 ceding one, while the same of the labial palpi is longer; the mentum 

 is profoundly emarginated; the anterior tibiae are elongated, their 

 external side is furnished with numerous teeth, and the extremity 

 on the opposite side with a single spur or spine; the epistoma is 

 lozenge-shaped. 



Sometimes the thorax of the male is armed with horns. They are 

 the Ceratophyus of Fischer, or Jlrmidens, Ziegler. 



G. typhseus; S. typhasus, L.; Oliv., Col. I, 3, vii, 52. Black; 

 three projecting black horns before the thorax of the male, of 

 which the intermediate is the shortest; elytra striated. In high 

 and sandy localities. 



G. momus} S. momus,Fiih This species, discovered in Spain 

 by count Dejean, differs from the Typhseus in the smoothness of 

 the elytra; it is otherwise similar. 



