of some Coleopterous Larvce, Sfc. 35 



This unfortunate accident not only deprived many a cabinet of 

 this fine beetle, but we have no direct evidence of the larva being 

 the offspring of Velleius, although, from its economy and its orga- 

 nization, it is scarcely to be doubted. My friend Professor Hens- 

 low kindly forwarded to me specimens, but, having died before 

 they were put into spirits, they were mutilated, which renders 

 my magnified figures and dissections somewhat imperfect, and 

 possibly not entirely to be relied upon in a few minor points. 



Family ELATERID^. 



Genus Athous. (Plate V. fig, 9.) 



Sp. 2. A. rhomheus, Oliv. 



Long, linear, plano-convex, with a channel along the back ; 

 pitchy, shining, with a few longish hairs. Head depressed, wedge- 

 shaped, semiorbicular (fig. 10) ; eyes none ; clypeus with a 

 conical tooth in the centre ; labrum undiscovered ; mandibles 

 meeting, arched and acute (fig. 10 o) ; maxillae broad at the apex, 

 and terminated by a minute, biarticulate, palpiform lobe (fig. 10 b). 

 Palpi short and 4-jointed, basal joint the largest; 2nd smaller, both 

 subobovate, truncated ; 3rd smaller, cup-shaped ; 4th very small, 

 and somewhat conical (fig. 10c); mentum chalice-shaped, with a 

 slender biarticulate palpus at each angle (fig. lOrf). Antennae in- 

 serted at the base of the mandibles, on each side of the crown of 

 the head, 4-jointed, basal joint short; 2nd quadrate; 3rd oval; 4th 

 very slender and as long as the 3rd (fig. 10 e). Prothorax quadrate, 

 two following segments transverse, punctured at the base, the 

 membrane between the segments forming whitish bands. Abdo- 

 men composed of eight transverse segments, deeply and very 

 coarsely punctured at the base, and a ninth forming the depressed 

 apex, coarsely and iri'egularly punctured, and sometimes ferrugi- 

 nous ; the centre depressed, the sides elevated and producing three 

 teeth each, produced at the apex into two furcate lobes, leaving a 

 circular space between them (fig. 11), with a short stout pro-leg 

 beneath at the base (fig. 12, the same in profile); spiracles invi- 

 sible after death. Legs very small, serrated beneath, with two 

 series of spines at the base, and terminated by a curved claw. 

 Underside more or less ochreous. 



Having found the larvae alive during my sojourn at Pan, in the 

 south of France, I had an opportunity of examining the organs of 

 the mouth in a living specimen, when they exhibited their full 

 development. A description and figures, therefore, of this rare 

 larva may be useful, notwithstanding the illustration of the species 



D 2 



