ANISOTOMIDiE. 157 



Family XVI. ANISOTOMIDiE mihi. 



Antennoe usually moniliform, somewhat elongate, rather slender at the base, and in 

 general gradually thickening to the apex, the terminal joint forming an elon- 

 gate club, varying in the number of its articulations. Palpi various, usually 

 filiform, not elongated: head usually small, ovate : thorax more or less gibbous : 

 body mostly convex, orbicular, short, sometimes globose, never linear : elytra 

 entire, rarely truncate : tibia spinose or simple, occasionally compressed : tarsi 

 various, rarely pentamerous, most frequently tetramerous ; sometimes hetero- 

 merous, the four anterior being five-jointed, and the posterior four-jointed, or 

 monomerous ? 



This family not only exhibits a remarkable example of the im- 

 portance of selecting characters from every part, but clearly shows 

 the great disadvantage resulting from an adherence to such cha- 

 racters as are derived from particular organs, and especially from 

 the number of joints of the tarsi; as amongst the following genera 

 we find heteromerous, tetramerous, and monomerous? insects ; which 

 has induced Latreille and the advocates for the tarsal system to 

 place them far apart, in the so-called natural arrangement, not- 

 withstanding they are so closely allied in habit and in general 

 structure. They all have the antennse somewhat elongated, and 

 more or less clavate, the clava varying in the number of joints of 

 which it is composed, and the eighth joint of the antennse from 

 the base is frequently minute, especially in the typical genera; a 

 structure which also obtains in some of the insects at the commence- 

 ment of the next subsection. The trophi vary somewhat in the 

 different genera ; but as many of the species are extremely minute, 

 slight notice has been taken of such distinctions in the following 

 pages, as they cannot be discriminated without the aid of the mi- 

 croscope, and although highly important for the purposes of ge- 

 neralization, little practical utility can result from such investiga- 

 tions : and, moreover, external characters, which, it has been well 

 observed, necessarily exhibit a corresponding difference in internal 

 organization, can be detected with greater facility, and are conse- 

 quently more useful for the investigation of species. 



The usual pabulum of these insects consists of decaying vegetable 

 matter, usually fungi, boleti, agarici, and similar plants, though some 

 of them are found upon flowers; — the indigenous genera which 

 have come beneath my observation may be thus known. 



