163 MANDIBULATA. — COLEOPTERA. 



Black, shining; head depressed, armed anteriorly with a compressed, bent, 

 vertical, obtuse horn, which is clothed behind with a fulvous down : thorax 

 large, very convex, with a few scattered impressions above, anteriorly very 

 retuse, or obliquely truncate, with five teeth, the middle one longest : elytra 

 somewhat rugged, rudely striated, and with coarse rounded impressed spots: 

 body beneath black, with the apex piceous : antenna? rusty-piceous. Female 

 with the horn on the head very short, straight, the thorax scarcely retuse ante- 

 riorly, with its surface thickly and very coarsely punctured. 



Variable in size and colour; some specimens being piceous; others castaneous 

 or pale ferruginous : the latter being probably immature. 



Not very abundant near London; it lias been captured on old 

 trees on Hampstead Heath, Muswell Hill, and in the lane leading 

 to Darenth-wood from Dartford Mills. " In abundance near Chel- 

 tenham and Plymouth." — Dr. Leach. " Not common (near Swan- 

 sea)." — L. W. Dittwyn, Esq. " In decayed ash and willow trees, 

 by no means of unfrequent occurrence near Cambridge and Botti- 

 sham." — Rev. L. Jenyns. " Kimpton." — Rev. G. T. Rudd. " Rose 

 Castle."— T. C. Hey sham, Esq. « York and Newcastle."— PT. C. 

 Hezaitson, Esq. " Allerby and Warwick, in decayed ash." — Rev. 

 W. T. Bree. " Found in profusion in rotten trees on the Castle- 

 hill at Dudley, and recorded by Dr. Booker in his History of 

 Dudley, under the name of Scarabseus nasicornis." — Mr. West- 

 wood 



The second group of the lamellicorn insects is very extensive, 

 though the indigenous species are not very numerous; it cor- 

 responds with the section 



Petalocera of Dumeril : 



Their antennae are generally composed of nine or ten joints only, inserted in a 

 cavity on the border of the head, the anterior portion of which is generally 

 produced : the eyes are placed more beneath than above : the mouth varies, 

 but the labium is most frequently covered by the mentum, which is large 

 and horny : the anterior tibia, and sometimes the others, are dentate outwardly, 

 and calculated for burrowing : the tarsi are always entire : the body is in 

 general more or less oval; and, as before mentioned, the head and thorax are 

 frequently armed with horns or tubercles. 



The Petalocera subsist entirely on vegetable substances;, the 

 greater portion — those of the first five subjoined families — preferring 

 it in a state of decomposition ; while the Melolonthidse devour fresh 

 leaves, and the Cetoniadse flowers in their perfect state ; the latter 



