v POLYMORPHA MELYRIDAE CLERIDAE 253 



iiot clavate. The habits in the two families are different, as the 

 Melyridae are frequenters of flowers. Many of the Melyridae 

 have the integument soft, but in the forms placed at the end 

 of the family e.g. Zygia they are much firmer. Thus these 

 Insects establish a transition from the Malacodermidae to ordi- 

 nary Coleoptera. Although the images are believed to consume 

 some products of the flo\vers they frequent, yet very little is 

 really known, and it is not improbable that they are to some 

 extent carnivorous. This is the case with the larvae that are known 

 (Fig. 130, larva of Malachius aeneus}. These are said by Ferris 

 to bear a great resemblance to those of the genus Telephorus, 

 belonging to the Malacodermidae. 



Fam. 56. Cleridae. I'arsi Jive-jointed ; l>ut the basal joint of 

 the posterior very indistinct, usually very small above, and closely 

 united with the second by an oblique splice; the apices of joints 

 two to four usually prolonged as membranous flaps ; anterior coxae 

 prominent, usually contiguous, rather large, but their cavities not 

 2>rolonged externally; labial palpi usually with large hatchet- 

 shaped terminal joint ; ventral segments five or six, very mobile. 

 The Cleridae are very varied in form and colours ; the antennae 

 are usually more or less clubbed at the tip, and not at all serrate, 

 but in Cylidrus and a few others they are not clubbed, and in 

 Cylidrus have seven flattened joints. The student should be 

 very cautious in deciding as to the number of joints in the feet 

 in this family, as the small basal joint is often scarcely dis- 

 tinguishable, owing to the obliteration of its suture with the 

 second joint. The little Alpine Laricobius has the anterior coxal 

 cavities prolonged externally, and the coxae receive the femora to 

 some extent, so that it connects Cleridae and Derodontidae. The 

 Cleridae are predaceous, and their larvae are very active ; they 

 are specially fond of wood-boring Insects ; that of Tillus elon- 

 gatus (Fig. 131) enters the burrows of Ptilinus pectinicornis in 

 search of the larva. The members of the group Corynetides 

 frequent animal matter, carcases, bones, etc., and, it is said, feed 

 thereon, but Perris's recent investigations 1 make it probable that 

 the larvae really eat the innumerable Dipterous larvae found in 

 such refuse ; it is also said that the larvae of Cleridae spin 

 cocoons for their metamorphosis ; but Ferris has also shown 

 that the larvae of Necrobia ruficollis really use the puparia formed 

 1 Larves des Coleopteres, 1878, p. 208. 



