Elater. COLEOPTERA. 73 



Geoffroy obferves, that a cavity is fcoopedout 

 of the under fide of the head and thorax of 

 the Elater, in which the antennas are lodged, 

 probably to preferve them from the violence of 

 the fall, when it makes the fmgular leap which 

 diftinguilhes it from all other infects. 



The character taken from the antennae by our 

 author is extremely vague, for, as SchaefTer juft- 

 ly obferves, they are in fome fetaceous, in others 

 filiform ; fometimes they are pectinated, and 

 fometimes ferrated -, the fpines at the extremity 

 of the thorax are, however, fufficient marks to 

 diftinguidi them by, being found upon alrnofi: 

 every one of them, and rarely met with in any 

 other of the Coleopterous order of infects. Sco- 

 poli has called one of his Elateres Degener, be- 

 caufe it differs from the others, in the want of 

 thofe fpines, the hinder part of its thorax being 

 round. Such are bed diftinguifhed from the 

 Bupreftis (which genus the Elater mod refembles) 

 by the elaftic fpine, fuuate at the .extremity of 

 the breaft. 



SchsefTer likewife obferves, that the hinder 

 angles of the thorax are very much pointed or 

 extended into fpines, and that the tarfi have five 

 articulations, or joints. 



Linnaeus 



