ELATERID/E. 



245 



and thorax backwards, and suddenly striking- the spiniform process 

 of the sternum against the base of the abdomen, by which means it 

 is thrown up a considerable height, and usually alights on its feet. 



The species frequent flowers and plants, or on grass, in the 

 trunks and beneath the bark of decayed trees : they are rarely of 

 brilliant colours, like the Buprestidse. 



The larvae are long, nearly cylindric, provided with short an- 

 tennas and palpi and six legs ; the body is composed of twelve 

 rings covered with a hard scaly skin, the anterior extremity being 

 produced into a margined plate, the edges of which are angular, 

 and furnished with two soft processes curved within, and beneath 

 which is a large fleshy retractile tubercle, which performs the office 

 of a foot: — they reside beneath the ground, in rotten wood. 



The indigenous species, which are rather numerous, may be 

 divided into the following genera, of equal rank with those of the 

 Harpalidse, thus briefly characterized : 



articulis 2is 



f elongato, subacute : 



221. Catajphagus. 



et 3is elongatis ; ultimo 



articulis 2is 



et 3is brevissimis, subglobosis ; 



I 



^ breve, oblique truncato : . 223. Hypnoidus. 



"elongato, gracile : . 224. Pertmecus. 



fad apicem ab- 



uttimoK | rupte acuminato : 225. Ludius. 



l^simplice : 



to 



222. Elater. 

 220. Eucnemis. 



("magno, elongato : 

 ("gibbosus. Tarsi I 



Iarttculo basali -f f subgracile :228. Euderus. 



I mediocre, 

 [^ subbreviore : | 

 Corpus \ 

 \ simplice | 

 articulo 2o I Thorax -J 



brevs^imoi | [latum: 227- Selatosomus. 



globoso,3o I 

 elongato ; | 

 Tarsi arti- j fmediocres, vix 



^ I subdepressus, haud prominentes: 226. Ctenicerus. 



l^ gibbosus. Oculi-i 



^magni,prominentes : 230. Camp ylus, 



culo 4to 



Ldilatato aut bifido. Corpus 



"subconvexum: 

 .depressum : 



229.AKATHROTUS. 

 219. CeRATOPHYTUM. 



