CLASSIFICATION 59 



Table for Determining the More Common Families of the Coleoptera. 



Adapted from Comstock. 

 A. Head not prolonged into a narrow beak ; palpi always flexible ; 

 two gular sutures at least before and behind; prosternal sutures 

 distinct ; the epimera of the prothorax not meeting on the middle 



line behind the presternum Typical Coleoptera. 



B. Hind tarsi with at least as many segments as the others. 

 C. Tarsi usually apparently four-jointed, the fourth segment 

 being reduced in size so as to form an indistinct segment at 

 the base of the last segment, with which it is immovably 

 united ; the first three segments of the tarsi dilated and brush- 

 ' like beneath; the third segment bilobed. In a single family, 

 the Spondylidae, the fourth segment of the tarsus, although 

 much reduced and immovably united with the fifth, is dis- 

 tinctly visible, the first three segments are but slightly di- 

 lated, and the third is either bilobed or not Phytophaga. 



D. Fourth segment of tarsus distinctly visible ; segments of 

 antennae with deep impressions containing the organs of 



special sense Spondylidae. 



DD. Fourth segment of tarsus inconspicuous ; organs of spe- 

 cial sense of antennae diffused. This group contains three 

 families, which are so connected by intermediate forms that 

 it is not easy to separate them. The following characters 

 will aid the student in separating the more typical forms : 

 E. Body elongate; antennae almost always long, often as 

 long as the body or longer. The larvae are borers. 



Cerambycidae. 



EE. Body short and more or less oval ; antennae short. 



F. Front not prolonged into a beak'; usually the tip of 



the abdomen is covered by the elytra. Both larvae and 



adults feed on the leaves of plants Chrysomelidae. 



CC. Tarsi varying in form, but when five-jointed not of the 

 type described under C, the joint between the fourth and 

 fifth segments being flexible. 



D. Ventral part of the first segment of the abdomen divided 

 by the hind coxal cavities, ?o that the sides are separated 

 from the very small medial part. 



