. The Cambridge natural history. Zoology. LAMELLICORNS 191. the form of the antennae is not so widely different from that of other Coleoptera. The larvae live on decaying vegetable matter, roots or dung. They have three pairs of legs, and are thick clumsy grubs with curved bodies, the last two segments being of larger size than usual. Many of them possess organs of stridulation, and the structure of their spiracles is very peculiar, each one being more or less completely sur- rounded by a chitin- ous plate. The spiracles usually form a system entirely closed, except at the moment when the skin
. The Cambridge natural history. Zoology. LAMELLICORNS 191. the form of the antennae is not so widely different from that of other Coleoptera. The larvae live on decaying vegetable matter, roots or dung. They have three pairs of legs, and are thick clumsy grubs with curved bodies, the last two segments being of larger size than usual. Many of them possess organs of stridulation, and the structure of their spiracles is very peculiar, each one being more or less completely sur- rounded by a chitin- ous plate. The spiracles usually form a system entirely closed, except at the moment when the skin is shed and the tracheal exuviae are detached. Meinert ^ considers these spiracles to be organs of hearing. The life of the larvae is passed underground or in the decaying wood on which the Insect feeds. Most of the members of this series are remarkable on account of the great concentration of the nerve-centres. This is extreme in Rliizotrogus, where there are only two great ganglia, viz. the supra-oesophageal and a great ganglion situate in the thorax, and consisting of the conjoined infra-oesophageal, thoracic, and abdominal ganglia. According to Brandt ^ there are several distinct forms of concentration in the series; the Lucanidae only participate in it to the extent that the perfect Insects exhibit fewer ganglia than the larvae; the latter possess two cephalic, three thoracic, and eight abdominal ganglia, while the perfect Insect has the abdominal ganglia reduced in number to six, and ' Banske Selsk. Skr. (6), viii. No. 1, 1895. ^ Horae Soc. ent. Hoss. xiv. 1879, ji. 15. Fig. 85. — Antennae of Lamellicornfs. 1, Xeleus inter- ru2Jtus; 2, LucawHS certus i\ 3, Phmiaeus sj}len- didulus ?; 4, Phileurus didyvnis ?; 5, Folyj)hylla fullo Please note that these images are extracted from scanned page images that may have been digitally enhanced for readability - coloration and appearance of these illustrations may not perfectly resemble the original Harmer, S. F. (Sidn
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