388 INSECTA. 



FAMILY VI. 



LAMELLICORNES.(l) 



In our sixth and last family of pentamerous Coleoptera, we find 

 the antennas inserted into a deep fossula under the lateral margin 

 of the head; they are always short, usually consist of nine or ten 

 joints, and are always terminated in a club usually composed of the 

 three last, which are lamellar, sometimes flabelliform or disposed 

 like the leaves of a book, opening and closing in a similar way, 

 sometimes concentrically contorted and fitting in each other, the 

 first or inferior then being semi-infundibuliform and receiving the 

 others, and sometimes arranged perpendicular to the axis and form- 

 ing a sort of comb. 



The body is generally ovoid or oval, and thick. The exterior 

 side of the two anterior tibiae is dentated, and the joints of the tarsi, 

 with the exception of those of some males, are entire and without 

 brush or pellet beneath. 



The anterior extremity of the head most commonly projects or is 

 dilated in the manner of an epistoma. The mentum is usually large, 

 covers the ligula or is incorporated with it, and bears the palpi. 

 The mandibles of several are membranous, a character observed in 

 no other coleopterous Insects. The males frequently difier from 

 the females, either by prominences on the thorax or head in the 

 form of horns or tubercles, or by the largeness of their mandibles. 



This family is very numerous, and with respect to the size of the 

 body, the variety of forms exhibited in the head and thorax, sexually 

 considered, is one of the most beautiful of the order, and frequently 

 also as regards the species, which in their perfect state live upon 

 vegetable substances, by the splendour of the metallic colours with 

 which they are ornamented. Most of the other species, however, 

 feeding on decomposed vegetable aliment, such as dung, tan, &c., 

 are usually of one uniform black or brown hue. Some of the Co- 

 prophagi, however, do not yield even in this respect to the former. 

 They are all furnished with wings, and their gait is heavy. 



The body of the larvae is long, almost semicylindrical, soft, fre- 

 quently rugose, whitish, and divided into twelve annuli, with six 



(1) Horns foliated. 



