380 NATURAL HISTORY OF ARTHROPODS. 



The CRYPTOPHAGID.E are beetles of small size, and usually of short, convex form. 

 On account of their minuteness, these beetles attract little popular attention. Some 

 of the species feed on fungi, some live in ants' nests, and others eat plants. The larva? 

 of Cryptophagus cellaris, a European species, live in the cells of wild bees (Anthophwa 

 retusa) upon the excrement of the young bee-larvae. C. quercimis, also a European 

 species, lives in the nests of ants in oak trees. Professor A. S. Packard writes that he 

 has found the larva? of Anther ophag us ochraceus in the nests of humble-bees (Bombus) 

 during July and August. It is likely that the species of Antherophagus, which are 

 frequenters of flowers, are carried into bees' nests by the bees themselves, since Perris 

 has observed a Buinli* nnitanus, to the antenna of which an A. nigricornis firmly 

 clung. The genus Atomaria is made up of extremely small beetles, as its name 

 indicates; these arc oval, convex, and pubescent. Several species of. Atomaria are 

 myrmecophilous, others are destructive to plants. A. linear i* has been known to ruin 

 young beet-plants. 



The family CUCUJID^E includes a small number of Coleoptera which are remarkable 

 for their excessively flattened, usually elongate form. Their abdomen has five free 

 ventral segments which are equal in length ; the antenna? are eleven-jointed and often 

 enlarged apically ; the prothorax is usually narrower than the elytra, The larvae are 

 elongated and depressed ; some have five ocelli upon each side of the head, others 

 none. The feet have each a simple claw. The tip of the abdomen is armed with a 

 pair of curved horns. Both larvae and beetles are found beneath the bark of decaying 

 trees; some of them (Prostomis) live in society with ants; the larva of one species, at 

 least, is carnivorous. 



The species of Brontes have striate elytra, the sides of the prothorax serrate, and 

 its anterior angles prolonged, the antenna? with the first joint elongated, the anterior 

 coxal cavities open behind, and the maxilla? exposed. B. dubius is 

 about 0.25 of an inch long, dark brown in color, and is not rare under 

 bark of dead chestnut trees in the northeastern United States. In 

 Europe JB. planatus is found under bark of dead oaks. 



In the genus Cuei/jus the hind-tarsi are only four-jointed in the 

 males ; the prosternum is narrow, and the hind-angles of the head are 

 prominent. C. clavipes is scarlet above, with black antenna? and eyes; 

 ;. 442. o<f/./.s- its upper surface is finely punctate. I have found this species under 



decaying butternut bark, where its larva probably lives. 



Catogenus differs from Cuatjus in having its maxilla? covered by corneous plates, 

 which are broad and rounded in front; the first tarsal joint is short. C. rufus, which 

 varies from 0.25 to 0.50 of an inch long, is deep brown, and is found in the eastern 

 I 'nited States. In parts of Connecticut it is common beneath the loose bark of the 

 trunks of hickory trees, and I have reared its larva, which fed upon a pupa of Ela- 

 jiliiifion /><ii-<illilinii, a borer in hickory. 



In Xijlraiuis the anterior coxal cavities are closed behind, the tarsi without lobes 

 beneath, the outer three joints of the antenna? are enlarged. S. surinamensis breeds 

 in grain, and, like most grain insects, has become widely distributed over the globe. 

 It is dark brown, marked with yellowish pubescence, and is only about 0.1 of an inch 

 long. 



The family COLYDIID^E comprises quite a number of very small, elongate, mostly 

 cylindrical beetles, of little popular interest on account of their small size. Some of 

 them live in fungi in the ground, or under bark of trees ; a few are myrmecophilous, 



