1890.] 265 



either the Anthicidcd ov the PedilidcB ; in the last European Catalogue 

 (Heyden, Reitter, and Weise, 1883) it is placed in the latter, while 

 Leconte and Horn (Class. Col. N. Am., p. 411 [1883]) include it in 

 the former, and treat the FedilidcB as a section of the same family. I 

 have already {op. cit.) expressed my opinion that the genus does not 

 belong to the one or to the other, and that it required a separate 

 Family, the Xylophilidce, for its reception. This has, in fact, already 

 been proposed by Thomson (Skand. Col., vi, p. 367), who is the only 

 author, so far as I am aware, who has observed one of the most im- 

 portant characters of the genus, viz., the connate first and second 

 ventral segments of the abdomen ; Lacordaire, Mulsant and Eey, 

 Jacquelin-Duval, and Leconte and Horn, all including Xylophilus in 

 groups or Families stated to possess five (distinct or free) ventral 

 segments, exclusive of the short and sometimes visible sixth. This 

 character, in conjunction with the form of the antepenultimate joint 

 of the tarsi* — produced beneath into a long and rather broad lobe, 

 which extends beneath the very small penultimate joint to beyond the 

 base of the apical one, the lobe itself being emarginate at the apex — 

 shape of the head, &c., distinguish the Family Xylo'pkilidce at once from 

 all others of the Seteromera. 



Yery many of the Central and North American representatives 

 do not fit satisfactorily into the various "genera" or "sub-genera" 

 into which Xylophilus has been divided. These genera or sub-genera, 

 it may be remarked, are based entirely upon European forms, and 

 some of them upon single species only ; their characters are taken 

 chiefly from the form of the eyes or of the antennae, differences of 

 specific rather than of generic value. The North American species 

 differ quite as much inter se as do those of Europe, but American 

 authors have not as yet proposed to separate any of them from the 

 genus Xylophilus ; nor have I thought it necessary to separate any of 

 the still more variable and more numerous Central American forms. 

 The named genera or sub-genera are : — 



1. PHTTOBiENUS, Sahib. : this in the last European Catalogue is retained 



as a distinct genus ; it includes a rare insect of Boreal Europe, 

 P. amahilis, Sahib. (= hishimaculatus, Hampe), for a type of 

 which I am indebted to Herr E. Reitter ; and the Japanese X. 

 scapularis, Mars., is so closely allied to Sahlberg's species as to be 

 inseparable from it. Phytohcenus can, at most, only be regarded 

 as a section of Xylophilus. 



2. EuGLENES, Westw. : contains species with very elongate serrate 



* Mistaken for the penultimate by Lacordaire and Westwood. 



