DESCEIPTIVE CATALOGUE OF THE COLEOPTERA 

 OF SOUTH AFRICA. 



By L. Peeinguey, F.E.S., F.Z.S., &c. 



Assistant Director South African Museum. 



Family SCARAB^ID^. 



Maxillae bi-lobate, but with the inner lobe often indistinct or 

 wanting and always immovable, ligula bifid and membranaceous, 

 or horny and soldered with the mentum ; antennae inserted in 

 front, near the eyes, under a ledge, varying in the number of 

 joints but with the ultimate ones mobile, compressed, lamellate 

 and forming a club ; abdomen with five or six ventral, and eight 

 dorsal segments ; prosternum small, owing to the contiguity of the 

 anterior coxge ; tarsi usually five-jointed, apical joint with a distinct 

 onychium between the claws. 



The sole distinctive character of this extremely numerous and very 

 variable family is the shape of the antennal club, the lamellate 

 joints of which are mobile. All the other characteristics vary 

 much, owing to the great diversity of habits. Yet it forms a 

 very homogeneous group, the sub-families of which, with perhaps 

 the exception of one {OrphnincE) are fairly well differentiated, but 

 there are many transition groups uniting genera apparently far 

 removed. 



The distinctive characters will be found described in full when 

 treating of the sub-families, and the following is only a short 

 summary of those used in the classification. 



Mandibles. — In the coprophagous species, especially the CoprincB 

 and the ApliodiincB, these mandibles are hidden under the clypeus 

 on the roof of the buccal cavity; they are membranaceous, but the 

 basal part is horny, and there is a trace in some of the AphodiincB of 

 a molar tooth at base. 



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