﻿278 LE CONTE.— SYNOPSIS OF THE 



One specimen from Georgia. Differs from the preceding by the longer erect hairs of 

 the thorax and by the long hairs of the pygidium and base of the elytra. The color 

 beneath is entirely testaceus, but specimens will probably occur of a darker color. 

 The abdomen is convex like that of a female, but there are coarse long bristles 

 scattered on each segment about the middle. 



3. M. angustatus, testaceus vel niger, undique pube appressa squamulosa pollinosa dense vestitus, 

 capite thoraceque nigris, hoc subconvexo maris latitudine sesqui longiore, elytris fundo testaceis, ano 

 setoso, antennis pedibusque testaceis, tarsis nigro-annulatis. Long. -35. 



Meloloniha elongata\\ Herbst, Col. 3, 145, tab. 26, fig. 3. 



Meloloniha angustata Beauv. Ins. 30, tab. 5, fig. 6. 



Macrodactylus polyphagus Burm. Lamell. 2, 2nd, 57. 



Southern States, Kansas, and as far south-west as Chihuahua. This species is more 

 slender in its form and is readily known from the others by the longer thorax and 

 total absence of erect hairs. Herbst in the description insists so strongly on the 

 " flachliegenden Harchen," that I have considered the species as known to him. The 

 characters given by Burmeister are relative, except that he states the anus to be tes- 

 taceous. It is so in all the specimens before me, but sometimes too the whole abdo- 

 men is of the same color. The abdomen of the female is large and ■ convex, with a 

 few bristles at the middle of the four anterior joints ; that of the male is more com- 

 pressed, with numerous spine-like bristles arranged in rows each side of the middle. 



7. DICHELONYCH.E. 



A small group, confined to the American continent, and of which the well known 

 genus from which it derives its name is the sole representative within our territory. 

 As a group, it is distinguished from foreign groups among the MelolonthidEe with 

 prominent conical anterior coxae, free labrum and abdominal segments, by the ligula 

 being connate with the mentum, the labrum large, vertical and deeply emarginate, 

 and by the sternum not being protuberant. The thorax as in Diplotaxes has a nar- 

 row apical membranous margin. With regard to the position of the group, Lacordaire 

 forms with it the passage from the Sericoides to the Macrodactylides ; from the latter 

 of which it differs according to his classification by the fifth ventral segment not being 

 larger than the others. I find, however, in Macrodactylus that the difference in size 

 of the segments is by no means obvious, and I am inclined, therefore, with Burmeister 

 to rank the present as a sub-group of Macrodactylidae, verging indeed by the freely 

 moving and prehensile claws to the Hoplidse. 



Dichelonycha Kirby. 

 Our species which have become tolerably numerous may be thus grouped. 



Thorax haud vel vix canaliculars - - - - - I. Sp. 1-^-9. 



Thorax valde canaliculars II. 9- — 13. 



