GREEN OR LIVING VEGETABLE MATTER. 81 



every climate : but whether it be owing to any peculiar 

 indecision with respect to the family, or to any other 

 cause, I have not yet been able to collect data of sufficient 

 importance to be the foundation of any attempt to discover 

 the rules of their distribution in nature. The Melolonthida 

 as well as the Glaphyrida. are remarkable for hirsute or 

 scaly elytra. This peculiarity even appears to have been 

 one of the earliest entomological observations of Linnaeus, 

 who in his Animalium Specierum in Classes, Ordines, Ge- 

 nera, Species, methodica Distribution, makes the following 

 remark : " Scarabteorum larva vksunt tranquille sub terra: 

 liarum pleraque fimo delectantur, et eo pascuntur. Hir- 

 sutorum Larva sub radicibus plantarum degunt et easdem 

 consumunt ; at Volatiles foliis arborum pascuntur" 



But one of the most constant characters of this family, 

 and which is indeed peculiar to it Avith the Anoplogna- 

 thida, is the transverse suture which divides as it were 

 the clypeus into two parts just before the eyes. This 

 character is worthy of attention, as it will serve to distin- 

 guish easily the saprophagous and thalerophagous circles 

 from one another even at the point where they approach the 

 nearest. Thus the Dynastidce have not this suture, whereas 

 in the Anoplognathida it is most evident, and can more- 

 over be traced without any difficulty throughout the 

 greater part of the neighbouring family of Rutelida. 



Fam.X. ANOPLOGNATHIDiE. 



Antennae 9- vel lO-articulata; 



Articulo basilari elongato, conico; secundo subgloba- 

 so ; septimo pateriformi brevissimo ,• . 



^Ed. Lugduni 1755, p. 113, 

 G 



