THE EUPODA, OR PHYTOPHAQA. 
213 
other families by their thickened hinder femora, which 
are formed for jumping; an exercise in which they 
freely indulge, often to the disgust of the collector, who 
gets his net half full of some desired species (for 
they are usually gregarious), and perhaps succeeds 
in bottling only a dozen, owing to the extreme acti- 
vity and long leaps of his temporary captives. 
Their antennas are inserted between the eyes, and 
in the majority, close together ; their elytra have the 
margin sinuated, and their front coxae are almost 
transverse, and not approximated. 
We possess more than a hundred species of this 
family, descriptions of which (with many others) will 
be found in the “ Essai Monographique sur les Gale- 
rucites Anisopodes (Altises) d’ Europe,” by M. Allard, 
Paris, 1861 (extracted from the Annals of the French 
Ent. Society), aud by Herr Weise in the “ Naturge- 
sichte der Insecten Deutschlands,” vol. vi., parts 4 
and 5 (1886-1888). 
They are all small, mostly metallic, strongly punc- 
tured, aud often g'aily coloured ; varying from a very 
convex and globular to an elongate form, but pre- 
serving throughout a certain likeness. They frequent 
all kinds of plants, but one species is generally 
attached to its particular favourite ; Thistles, Hazel, 
Mallow, Willow, Mercurialis, Salicaria, Euphorbia, 
Rubus , Nasturtium, Thapsus, Dulcamara ., Hyoscyamus, 
Atropa, Alliaria, and the Cruciferse generally, having 
all their peculiar devourers in this family. 
Graptodera contains our largest species ; somewhat 
resembling the Galerucidss in shape ; usually of an 
uniform blue or green in colour : and occurring plenti- 
fully on hazel, &c. : Hermseophaga, considerably smaller, 
