■268 
BRITISH BEETLES. 
English species, and varies much in size. In the male 
the antennae are inserted near the apex of the rostrum, 
which is dull, enlarged, and suddenly contracted be- 
hind their articulation; whilst in the female it is 
smooth, narrow, and with the antennae inserted close 
to the base. 
Some of the remaining species, — small, obscure, 
cylindrical beetles, — are common in half-rotten wood, 
under fir bark, &c. 
The remaining family, the Scolytidje (also termed 
Hylesinidse, or Tomicidse), are by some authors raised 
to a sectional rank, under the name Xylophaga ; but, 
being intimately allied to the Cossonidx, they are 
generally considered as a division of the Rhynchophora, 
connecting that section with the next. 
These insects have been fully described by Erichson, 
in Wiegmann’s Archiv. fur Naturg., vol. ii., 1836 (an 
abstract of which appeared in the “ Naturalist ” for 
December of the same year), and also (with others 
injurious to timber) by Ratzeburg, “ Die Forst-In- 
secten/’ Berlin, 1837, — a work of considerable value. 
They have the head somewhat globular, deeply sunk 
in the thorax (Plate XII., Pig. 6 a; head and thorax 
of Hylesinus vittatus), and produced into the sug- 
gestion of a rostrum in front; the antennae (which 
have never more than ten joints) elbowed, having a 
long basal joint, and a more or less flattened club, 
which is either solid or four-jointed ; the front coxte 
globose, prominent, and not widely separated ; the 
tibiae flattened and widened at the apex, hooked at the 
extremity, fossorial, and usually toothed or crenulated 
on the outer side ; the mandibles short, robust, 
prominent, and triangular ; the maxillae thin, broad, 
