COLEOPTERA. 395 



maxillae is furnished with a corneous tooth or hook, all the joints of 

 the tarsi are entire, and the eyes oblong and but very slightly pro- 

 minent, a circumstance which, according to M. Marcel de Serres, 

 indicates their nocturnal habits. Almost all these Insects live on 

 the ground, either in sand, or under stones, and frequently in cel- 

 lars, stables, and other dark places about our habitations. 



Our first division of this family, wliich in the Linnasan system 

 forms the genus Tenebrio, is founded on, the presence or absence 

 of wings. 



Of those which are deprived of these organs, and in which the 

 elytra are generally soldered, some have the palpi almost filiform, 

 or terminated by a moderately dilated joint, and do not form a dis- 

 tinctly securiform or triangular club. They will compose a first 

 tribe, that of the Pimeliari^, so named from the genus 



PiMELIA, Fab. 

 These Heteromera are proper to the countries situated round the basin of 

 the Mediterranean, to western and southern Asia, and to Africa. They 

 are not found in India, or at least none have as yet been discovered there. 

 The Pimeliarise consist of numerous g-enera, the chief of which are, Ero- 

 diuSf Zophosis, Tentyria, Akis, Tagenia, &c. 



The second tribe of the Melasoma, that of the Blapsides, re- 

 ceives its denomination from the genus Blaps of Fabricius. 



The maxillary palpi terminate by a manifestly securiform or tri- 

 angular joint. This tribe is formed of a single genus, that of 



Blaps. 

 In Blaps properly so called, the thorax is almost square and plane, or but 

 slightly convex. The abdomen is oval, truncated transversely at base, and 

 more or less elongated. The elytra of most of them are naiTov/ed and pro- 

 longed into a point, those of the males especially. The third joint of the 

 antennx is cylindrical and much longer than the following ones; the latter, 

 or at least the three antepenultimate ones, are granose; the last is ovoid and 

 short. 



B. laevigata. Fab- This species might constitute a particular subgenus. 

 Its body is much shorter than that of the others, and extremely convex or 

 gibbous. The antennx are granose from the fourth joint. The anterior 

 tibiae terminate in a stout point or spine formed by a spur. 



It is stated by Fabricius that the Turkish women inhabiting Egypt, where 

 the Insect is very common, eat the Blaps sulcata, cooked with butter, in 

 order to become fat. The same author also says that it is used as a remedy 

 for the head-ach, and the sting of a Scorpion. 



