. Coleoptera : general introduction and Cicindelidae and Paussidae. arance, the prothoracic segment being much raisedand enlarged, and the last segment being furnished in Bylecoetuswith a long pointed setose process, and in Lymexylon with a iargehalf-upright obtuse lobe. The most curious member of the family is, perhaps, Atractocerus(of which two or three species have been described from Ceylon).It has rudimentary elytra and large ample wings which are not 142 INTHODTJCTIOX. folded and have a longitudinal venation, which is peculiar, but isnearer to that of the Staphylixoidea than of either of
. Coleoptera : general introduction and Cicindelidae and Paussidae. arance, the prothoracic segment being much raisedand enlarged, and the last segment being furnished in Bylecoetuswith a long pointed setose process, and in Lymexylon with a iargehalf-upright obtuse lobe. The most curious member of the family is, perhaps, Atractocerus(of which two or three species have been described from Ceylon).It has rudimentary elytra and large ample wings which are not 142 INTHODTJCTIOX. folded and have a longitudinal venation, which is peculiar, but isnearer to that of the Staphylixoidea than of either of the othergroups ; there are eight visible ventral segments of the abdomen. The remarks of Lameere (Ann. Soc. Ent. Belgique, ix, 1900,p. 358) with regard to the family are worth quoting:— 1. Of all the Coleoptera the family of the Lymexylides is thenearest to the ancestral Neuroptera. 2. Like the Planipennia, the Lymexylides have all the coxaeconical and projecting; their tarsi and their antennae arenot or hardly differentiated ; in Atractocerus there are eight. Fig. 62.—Atractocerus frontalis. visible ventral segments of the abdomen, the maximumnumber found among the Coleoptera; Hyleccetus possessesthe rudiment of the medial ocellus of the ancestralNeuroptera. 3. Like all survivors of primitive forms, the Lymexylidespresent very pronounced coenogenetic characters, as, forexample, the development of the maxillary palpi in themale. In his subsequent Nouvelles notes pour la Classification desColeopteres (Ann. Soc. Ent. Belg. 1903, p. 159) M. Lameeredisclaims having regarded Atractocerus as the lowest of the Coleo-ptera, but he certainly seems to do so in the above-quotedpassage. (PTINID^). 143 Family 63. (PTINIDiE). Form very variable, often different in the sexes, globular orcylindrical ; antennce nine- to eleven-jointed ; anterior and middlecoxce cylindrical or globose, small, the former slightly prominent :posterior coxce transverse and someivhat varia
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Keywords: ., bookcentury1900, bookdecade1910, booksubjectbeetles, bookyear1912
