INSECT A — COLEOPTERA. 
181 
NiTiDULARiiE. — The reporter (Germ. Zeitsch. iv. p. 225) has attempted 
a systematic division of this family, and divided it into six groups, 
according to the number of the maxillary lobes, the proportions of the 
tarsal joints, &c. : — 1st Group, Cateretes, with two narrow, long, maxillary 
lobes, and, as in the four following groups, very small fourth tarsal 
joint ; it is divided into the genera Gercus, Latr. {pedicularius, &c., six 
species), and Brachypterus, Kug. (gravidus, urticce, &c., nine species), 
the former having simple claws, the second dentated ; the latter differs, 
besides, by a small segment, which, in the male, is found at the point of 
the posterior part of the body, &c. 
The following groups have a single maxillary lobe : — 2d Group, Car- 
pophilini, distinguished from the following group by strong shortened 
elytra, which leave two or three segments of the posterior part of 
the body free : My strops (three new species) ; Colastus (formerly 
Colopterus, Nit. rupta, F., eighteen species, all American) ; Brachy- 
peplus (first described in these Archives, 184:2, i. p. 14:8, four species, 
of which two are from Van Diemen’s Land) ; Cillaius, Lap. (besides 
the species characterized by Lap. from Madagascar, a new one from 
Columbia) ; Conotelus (Stenus conicus, F., eight species, all from 
America) ; Carpophilus, Leach (twenty-seven species) ; and Ecnomceus 
(with one new species from Senegal). — 3d Group, Nitidulince, forming 
the central point of the whole family ; the genera are grouped according 
to the antennal furrows on the under side of the head ; these are either 
converging in Epurcea (antennal furrows obsolete ; N. cestiva, &c., thirty 
species), Nitidula (bipustulata, six species), Perilopa (two new species), 
Soronia (N. punctatissima, three species), Prometopia (Nit. Q~maculata, 
Say, two species), Psilotus, Fisch {Nit. cornuta, F., three species), Platy- 
chora {Nit. Lebasii, Dej., two species), Axyra (one new species from 
Guinea), Ischcena (two new species from Java) ; or the antennal furrows 
are straight and parallel, in Ipidia {Ips. ^-notata, F.) ; or they are 
behind the eyes, arched round externally in Amphotis {Nit. margin- 
ata, F.), Lobiopa {Nit. undulata, Say, ten species from America), 
Omosita {N. colon, three species), Phenolia {Nit. grossa, F.), Stelidota, 
{N. strigosa, Sch., seven species). — 4:th Group, Strongylince, differing 
from the preceding group, by the breast having projections ; i. e., the 
pro-sternmn juts out posteriorly ; the posterior margin of the thorax is 
either locked to the anterior margin of the elytra, or it grasps strongly 
over them. To the first sub-division belong Thalycra {Strong, sericeus, 
St. ; N.fervida, Gy 11.), JEthina (one new species from Madagascar), Pria, 
Steph. {Nit. dulcamarce, 111., four species), Meligethes, Steph., Hebascus 
{Sphaerid. anale, F., four species), Oaulodes (one new species from New 
Holland), Lordites (four new species), Pocadius {Nit. ferruginea, F., 
five species). To the second sub-division belong Camptodes {SphcBrid. 
scutellatnm, Sturm., thirty-nine species, partly with dentated, partly 
225 P 
