BEETLES. 



351 



FIG. 394. Mordella 

 ornata. 



sucked the juices entirely out of the wasp-larva, and pupates in its cell. The whole 



process requires from twelve to fourteen days, and the beetle emerges two days later 



than the wasps in the same row of cells. Myodites subdf.pterus, 



another European species, has been reared from nests of Ilalictus 



sexcinctus. JRMphidius, a European genus, has larviform females 



without wings or elytra; its larvae are parasitic in the abdomen 



of cockroaches. 



The MOKDELLID.E are beetles similar in general appearance to 

 those of the last-described family, but they differ from those of that 

 family in having a distinct lateral suture of the thorax, and in having 

 filiform antennas. The larvae of the Mordellidae are not parasitic 

 as are those of the three preceding families, but live in fungi or 

 twigs ; the larvae have short legs, on which the joints are not dis- 

 tinctly indicated. The beetles themselves are of small size, and, 

 like the Rhipiphoridse, are found on flowers. 



Very few of the American species of this family have been reared. 

 Mr. V. T. Chambers has reared a species of Mordella from a larva 

 feeding in pith of Vernonia, and mentions the occurrence of similar 

 larvae in the galls of Gelechia gallcesolidaginis on Solidago. 



The ANTHICIDJE, a family of beetles mostly of small size, are gen- 

 FIO. 3t>5. Mor- erally found on flowers, although some species are inhabitants of sandy 

 '//,/"? octopunc ' places near the water. These beetles have the head constricted behind 

 the eyes, the lateral suture of the narrow prothorax is wanting, the 

 rounded elytra cover the entire abdomen. In JVotoxtis and Anthicus, two genera 

 with numerous species, the head is deflexed and narrowed behind the oval, coarsely- 

 granulated eyes. In JVbtoxiis the prothorax extends out over the head in a sort of 

 horn ; in Anthicus there is no prothoracic horn ; and in the ant-like genus Formico- 

 mus, which is closely related to Anthicus, wings are absent. But little is known of 

 the life history of the Anthicida'. Tanarthrus salinus, from the Colorado desert- 

 lands, and from Utah, runs and flies along the salt mud much in the same way as do 

 species of Oicindela. 



The family of the TENEBRIONID.E, as usually limited, includes between four and 

 five thousand kinds of beetles, mostly of rather sombre coloration, although a few 

 species are marked with red or are bronzed. Le Conte and Horn say that, " This 

 family contains a large number of genera, possessing in common very few characters, 

 yet linked together by such gradual changes in structure that their classification pre- 

 sents almost insuperable difficulties." The beetles of this family have, according to 

 the above-named authors, simple claws, anterior coxal cavities closed behind, five 

 ventral segments which are in part connate, and the penultimate joint of the tarsi not 

 spongy beneath. They may be divided into three sub-families. These are the Tene- 

 brioninae, having the third and fourth ventral segments with a coriaceous posterior 

 margin ; the Asidinae, having the ventral segments entirely corneous and the middle 

 coxae with a distinct trochantin; and the Tentyriinae, having the ventral segments 

 entirely corneous, as in the Asidinae, biit the middle coxae without trochantin. 



The larvae of Tenebrionidse are elongated, often resembling, in a general way, the 

 so-called ' wire-worms,' the larvae of Elateridae. The larvae have four-jointed antennae, 

 five-jointed legs, are provided with from two to five ocelli on each side of the head, 

 and often have a pair of anal appendages to aid in locomotion. The larvae feed upon 



