COLEOPTERA. 445 



PiMELiA — Tenebrio, Lin. 



These Heteromera are proper to the countries situated round the 

 basin of the Mediterranean, to western and southern Asia, and to 

 Africa. They are not found in India, or at least none have as yet 

 been discovered there. 



Some species, usually more elongated, have the mentum exposed, 

 and the antennae slightly and insensibly enlarged at the extremity; 

 the three last joints do not form a club, divided into two equal por- 

 tions, the last of which is composed of the tenth and last joint con- 

 founded together. 



In some of these, the abdomen is proportionally wider and more 

 voluminous, and the legs are less elongated; the anterior tibiae are 

 in the form of a reversed triangle, elongated, and have the exterior 

 angle of their extremity prolonged; the spurs are stout and the tarsi 

 short. 



M. Fischer — Entomog. Russ. Imp. — has divided them into three 

 genera, Fimelia, Platyopus and Diesia, but their characters, being 

 only founded on the greater or less projection of the last joint of the 

 antennae and the dentations of the anterior tibiae, do not appear to 

 us sufficiently determinate. The eleventh and last joint of the an- 

 tennae is most distinct in the Diesiae. The anterior tibiae are much 

 dentated exteriorly in Platyopa, where the thorax forms a transver- 

 sal square, the base of the elytra is straight, and the exterior angles 

 or the shoulders slightly project. Among the Pimeliae, properly so 

 called of this author, or those in which the eleventh and last joint 

 of the antennae unites, or is almost confounded with the preceding 

 one, where the thorax is almost semilunar and convex, and the abdo- 

 men nearly ovoid or globular, is placed the 



P. 2-pimctata, Fdih.; Oliv., Col., Ill, 59, i, 1. Length eight 

 lines; glossy-black; thorax granulated, with two large punctures 

 in the middle, united in some individuals in a transverse line; 

 elytra granulated, each with four elevated lines, the lateral carina 

 included, not visibly dentated, of which the two inner ones are 

 shorter; suture elevated. Common on the shores of the Medi- 

 terranean. 



The Tenebrio muricatus, L., is a different species — Schcenh., 

 Synon. Insect, I, tab. Ill, 9. 



P. coronata, Oliv., lb., II, 17. Fifteen lines in length; black- 

 ish; covered Avith reddish-brown hairs; a range of posteriorly 

 curved spines on the lateral carina of each elytron. 



M. Payraudeau has discovered in Corsica a new species — 

 Payraudii — allied to the first, but with a more elongated abdo- 



