280 MANDIBULATA. — COLEOPTERA. 



Family XXXIV.— CEBMQNIDiE mihi. 



Antennae inserted before the eyes, longer than the thorax, filiform, composed of 

 cylindrie articulations : mandibles corneous, bent, acute, slightly emarginate 

 towards the tip : palpi filiform, the posterior shortest : labium emarginate ; 

 body elongate, rather firm ; head rather small, inclined : thorax trapeziform : 

 legs rather long ; tarsi 5-jointed, the penultimate joint bilobed. 



There is but one indigenous genus of this family, which may be 

 thus known : 



Genus CCXXXIIL— Atopa*, Pay fad. 



Antenna with the first and second joints very short, and the third slightly 

 elongate, and equal in length with the terminal^ one, which is obliquely 

 truncate. Palpi, maxillary long, filiform : labial short, the terminal joint 

 slightly incrassated, obovate: mandibles porrect, with a single tooth within : 

 maxilla bilobed, the outer one bifid : labium divided into two bifid divari- 

 cating lobes: head moderate, deeply inserted in the thorax, which is trans- 

 verse, with the posterior margin sinuated : elytra elongate-ovate, convex, as 

 long as the abdomen : legs long and slender : femora compressed : tarsi with 

 the three basal joints cordate, the fourth joint bilobed. 



Of this genus a single species only is found in Britain : it may 

 be known from the others of the group by its elongate, convex 

 body, combined with long filiform antennae and palpi, and the 

 singular structure of the maxillse and labium, the bifid portions of 

 which are composed of elongate membraneous pubescent lobes. 



Sp. 1. cervina. Oblongo-ovata, fusca, denss pallido-pubescens, ano ungulisque 



subtestaceis. (Long. corp. 4| — 5^ lin.) 

 Ch. cervina. Linne. — At. cervina. Steph. Catal. 128. No. 1295. — Da. cervinus. 



Curtis, v. pi. 216 $ and $. 

 Dusky, or black, clothed with a dense ochreous pubescence, minutely and thickly 



punctured, the punctures somewhat disposed in lines on the elytra and rather 



coarse. Female livid, with the elytra, legs, and antennae dull testaceous. 

 Variable : — in some males the body beneath and thorax are black, and the elytra 



livid or dull testaceous, in others the legs are more or less testaceous : — the 



* I have here followed Paykull's name, in preference to the one applied a short 

 time previously by Latreille, as, although not strictly incorrect, it is manifestly 

 absurd to apply the old name of a fish to a genus of insects. 



