424 INSECT A. 



terior extremity of the abdomen most commonly ends in a point or 

 stylet, at least in the males. 



Of those species in which the antennal club is composed of seven 

 leaflets in the males, and of six in the females we will mention 



M. fuUo; Scurahscus fullo, L.; Oliv., Col. I, 5, iii, 28. About 

 an inch and a half long;; brown or blackish; three lines on the 

 thorax, two white ovoid spots on the scutellum, and several 

 other irregular ones on the elytra. The antennal club of the 

 male is very large. Found near the sea coast on the Downs. 



M. vulgaris; S. melolonfha, L.; Oliv., lb., I, 1, a — d(l). 

 Black; hairy; the antennae, anterior margin of the epistoma, 

 elytra and greater part of the feet reddish-bay; thorax somewhat 

 dilated and marked with an impression near the middle of its 

 lateral edges, sometimes black, and sometimes red; four ele- 

 vated lines on the elytra, whose outer margin is the colour of 

 the ground; triangular white spots on the sides of the abdo- 

 men; the anal stylet tapering insensibly to a point. 



3J. hippocastani, Fab.; Oliv., lb., I, 3, a, b, c. This Insect, 

 formerly confounded with the vulgaris, is rather smaller, shorter 

 and more convex; the elytra are margined with black, and the 

 anal stylet is proportionably shorter and contracted before the 

 extremity which thus appears broad and obtuse. 

 The alimentary canal of the Melplontha vulgaris, according to 

 M. Leon Dufour — Ann. des Sc. Nat., Ill, p. 234 — is not so long as 

 that of Copris, but its parictes are shorter. The chylific ventricle 

 is wholly destitute of papillae, and exhibits beautiful fringes on 

 its surface, which are formed by hepatic vessels. The small in- 

 testine is followed by a species of colour furnished with internal 

 valvulas under the form of small, triangular, and imbricated 

 pouches, arranged in six longitudinal series, separated by as many 

 muscular cords, M. Dufour has frequently found these pouches 

 filled with a green, vegetable pulp. The structure of the biliary ves- 

 sels is extremely delicate; they form multiplex flexures, and seve- 

 ral of them, right and left, are furnished with little fringe-like fila- 

 ments. The copulating armature of the male is extremely thick, very 

 hard, terminated by two stout hooks, and presents an articulation 



(1) While this work was in press, that of M. Straus on the anatomy of the M. 

 vulgaris was presented to the Acad. Koyale des Sciences, at whose expense it 

 was published. We sincerely regret that we had not time to proKt by tliis ex- 

 cellent work. M. Leon Dufour had ah'eady made us acquainted with every thing 

 relative to tlie system of digestion and the organs of generation. M. Chabrier had 

 also described and figured with great exactness the muscles of the wings and the 

 thorax. M. Straus has completely supplied all other deficiencies. 



