GREEN OR LIVING VEGETABLE MATTER. 81 



every climate : but whether it be owing to any peculiar 

 indecision with respect to the family, or to any other 

 cause, I have not yet been able to collect data of sufficient 

 importance to be the foundation of any attempt to discover 

 the rules of their distribution in nature. The Melolo7ithid(e 

 as well as the Glaphyrid<R are remarkable for hirsute or 

 scaly elytra. This pecuharity even appears to have been 

 one of the earliest entomological observations of Linnaeus, 

 who in )\i?, Animalium Specierimi in Classes, Or-dines, Ge- 

 nera, Species, methodica Distribution, makes the following 

 remark: " Scarabaorum larvae vivunt tranquilli sub terra: 

 harum pleraque fimo delectantur, et eo pascuntur. Ilir- 

 sutorum Larvce sub radicibiis plantarum degunt et easdem 

 consumunt ; at Volatilesfoliis arborum pascuntur." 



But one of the most constant characters of this family, 

 and which is indeed peculiar to it with the Anoplogmi- 

 ihidcE, is the transverse suture which divides as it were 

 the clypeus into two parts just before the eyes. This 

 character is worthy of attention, as it will serve to distin- 

 guish easily the saprophagous and thalerophagous circles 

 from one another even at tl>e point where they approach the 

 nearest. Thus the Di/nastidtR have not this suture, M'hereas 

 in the. Anoplognath id (R it is most evident, and can more- 

 over be traced without any difficulty throughout the 

 greater part of the neighbounng family of Rutelidee. 



Fam.X. ANOPLOGNATHID.^. , W. 

 Antennae 9- vel lO-articulata ; 



Articulo basilari elongate, conico; secundo subgloho- 

 so ; septimo pateriformi brevissimo ; ■ 



Jf«Hlwr;j^v,>,^^ =EJ. Liigduni 175:),p. 113. 



