TESTEBRIONTDCE, — LA.GRIID.E. 



161 



same family. The large majority of the species of the group are 

 not interesting, and have, in consequence, been much neglected. 



It is almost impossible to give a satisfactory table of the various 

 groups, sections, and tribes belonging to this great and in many 

 ways heterogeneous complex. Owing to the very large number 

 of species that have been described of late years the older work of 

 Lacordaire and others has become more or less obsolete, and the 

 more modern writers have dealt only with their particular groups. 

 The distinctive characters, moreover, are often slight and not 

 very evident from descriptions. The student, however, can very 

 easily become acquainted with the leading features and divisions 

 of the family by looking over a collection, or even a good set of 

 illustrations, as the facies of the various groups is very different. 

 The similarity of the larva?, however, is very striking, and it is 

 this, more than anything else, that enables the family to be 

 regarded as homogeneous in spite of the very variable aspect, 

 habitat, and habits of its members. 



[Family 72. ^GIALITID.E.] 



Head prominent ; eyes small; antenna? eleven-jointed, inserted under 

 very small oblique frontal ridges ; anterior coxce widely, intermediate 

 and posterior coxce very widely, separated ; anterior coxal cavities 

 closed behind ; abdomen with six ventral segments, the tip of the 

 sixth only being visible ; tarsi, except the last joint, pubescent beneath, 

 claws simple. 



This small family contains only one or two species of small and 

 very rare insects from Alaska and California, the position of 

 which has given rise to many doubts. In the Munich Catalogue 

 they are included under the Txnebbioriixx ; Mannerheim hesi- 

 tated whether to place them with the SctdisoentDjE or near Helops • 

 Dejean regarded jEgialites as near Mastigus ; others again have 

 considered it to be related to the Dryopid^e ; Sharp, who is pro- 

 bably right, appears to think that the family is closely allied to 

 the PYTMDiE, from which it is distinguished by the minute, 

 closed in, and deeply embedded anterior coxae. 



Family 73. LAGRIIDJK. 



Antennce eleven-jointed, inserted under small frontal ridges ; pro- 

 thorax narrower than base of elytra, more or less cylindrical ; elytra 

 completely covering abdomen ; anterior coxce conical and prominent, 

 cavities closed behind ; intermediate, coxce ivith trochantin ; posterior 

 coxce transverse ; abdomen as a rule with five segments, a sixth some- 



M 



