256 



REVISION OF THE TENEHIUONIDvE OF AMERICA, 



among Coleoptera, might have been induced to review his work and so describe the spe- 

 cies that their correct synonymy could be properly ascertained. From the repeated study 

 of his descriptions, I am fully satisfied that all the Tenebrionidse, at least, are old species, 

 some of them having been described for ten or twenty years. 



In regard to the classification of the family but little need here be said. After a very 

 careful review of all systems heretofore published, I am inclined to adopt that of Dr. Le- 

 contc, as giving in a more satisfactory manner the relations the tribes should occupy to 

 each other. In a review of the succeeding pages, the reader will find the tribes numbered 

 continuously, although in a fauna limited as is our own, these tribes must not always be 

 considered as of equal value among themselves, nor even equivalents of those of similar 

 designation in the work of Lacordaire. As the classification of the family on anything 

 like a natural method has been the result of the labor of few students, and in compara- 

 tively recent times, it can hardly be supposed to be as firmly fixed as that of the Carabi- 

 dae and Staphylinida?; therefore, the author lias at times varied from any systems yet 

 proposed, with the view of lessening the number of exceptional cases that must inevitably 

 occur where any strict line of division is allowed to conflict with natural affinities. 



The family Tencbrionida? may be divided into three sub-families. 

 Hind margins' of all the ventral segments corneous. 



Meso-coxse enclosed by the sterna; trochantin not visible. 



Meso-coxa: open externally; trochantin visible. 

 Hind margins of the third and fourth ventral segments partly coria 



TENTYBIID.dE. 

 ASIDIDiE. 



ccous; trochantin visible or not. 



TENEBRIONIDSE. 



Sub-Family TENTYMIDiE. 



This sub-family comprises all those genera in which the ventral segments are entirely 

 corneous, and the meso-coxae enclosed by the meso- and meta-sterna, and with the tro- 

 chantin consequently invisible. The mention here attains its greatest development, and 

 in many of the genera entirely hiding all the other parts of the mouth. The sides of the 

 gula are usually prominent and applied directly against the sides of the mentum, so that 

 no gular peduncle can exist. The tarsal vestiturc is somewhat variable, in most of the 

 genera the tarsi have very coarse, almost spinous hairs, and much more rarely silky pu- 

 bescent. 



The following table will serve to distinguish the tribes in our fauna. 

 Mentum large, concealing both maxillae and ligula. 



Fpisterna of metathorax very wide; front trilobed. epifhysini. 



Episterna of metathorax narrow. 



