(EDEMERIDyE. 



165 



the shape of the coxal cavities, and in having all the joints of the 

 tarsi simple. They are few in number and are found in the Trans- 

 Caspian region. Nothing appears to be known at present about 

 their life-history 



Family 79. (EDEMERID.E. 



Elongate, slender insects, often with a delicate integument ; head 

 inclined, somewhat narrowed behind, and inserted in the prothorax 

 by a broad necJc ; antennce long, or very long, nearly always slender 

 and filiform, sometimes serrate ; prothorax narrower at base than 

 the elytra ; anterior coxce large, conical, and contiguous, cavities widely 

 open behind and confluent, posterior coxce transverse ; elytra covering, 

 or almost covering the abdomen ; abdomen with five free ventral seg- 

 ments, a sixth sometimes visible in the males ; penultimate joints of 

 tarsi dilated or bilobed, claws simple. 



This family has been placed by some authors near theMELOi'D.E, 

 but it is more nearly related to the Melaxdryid.e and Pythidje. 



Superficially many of the species re- 

 semble Cantharidje, while others 

 are like certain genera of Longicorns ; 

 in fact the old writers, especially 

 Linne and Fabricius, regarded several 

 of these insects as belonging to the 

 latter group, and placed them under 

 Cerambyx, Necydalis, and Leptura 

 (v. Lacordaire, Gen. Col. v, p. 697). 

 Upwards of 500 species are known, 

 which are very widely distributed. 

 They are usually found on flowers 

 or plants, but Leconte and Horn 

 mention the fact that some species 

 Fig. 72—(Edemera, sp. nov. of Asclera are found on the 

 (In British Museum.) ground near water ; they occur in 



both temperate and hot climates, 

 but hardly any have been recorded as yet from the Iudiau 

 region. 



The larvae are very peculiar, being in many cases furnished with 

 tubercles or pseudopodia on both the dorsal and ventral aspects 

 of the thoracic and anterior abdominal segments ; the upper as 

 well as the lower prolegs act as aids to locomotion in the burrows 

 in dead wood in which they live ; they are very conspicuous in 

 Nacerdes and Asclera, but are wanting in (Edemera virescens, which 

 is of simpler construction. 



The common European Cantharis-like Nacerdes melanura in 

 remarkable for inhabiting the sea-shore, where its larva lives is 

 timber cast up by the sea or in piles driven iuto the sand. 



