438 COLEOPTERA. 



seize their food by throwing their heads back and extending 

 the jaws. When handled "it becomes placid, and emits a 

 blackish fetid fluid from the mouth accompanied by a slight 

 noise." The larva of the European H. piceus Linn. (Fig. 382) 

 becomes mature in two mouths, then ascends to the bank, 

 forms an oval cocoon, and transforms to a beetle in about 

 forty days. 



In the genus Sperclieus (S. tessellatus Melsheimer) the mid- 

 dle and hind tarsal joints are equal in length. The females of 

 the European species carry the eggs in a silken nidus beneath 

 their abdomens, and as the eggs are hatched every eight or ten 

 days, others are laid to keep up the supply. 



Hydrophilus is large, oval, olive black, with smooth elytra, 

 and the prosternum is small, with a long spine on the meta- 

 sternum. In the lan T se the lateral appendages of the abdomen 

 are soft, flexible, ciliated, and assist in buoying up the heavy 

 fleshy body (for which purpose the antennae are ciliated) but 

 they do not serve for respiration, as in Berosus, another 

 extensive genus of this family. (Schiodte.) //. triancjularis 

 Say is a large pitchy black species. In Hyclrobius the last 

 joint of the maxillary palpi is longer than the preceding. 

 Sphceridium and its allies arc characterized by an ovate, con- 

 vex or hemispherical form, being black, with the elytra often 

 spotted or margined with yellow, and with ten rows of punc- 

 tures or striae, though in Cyclonotum there are no strife. In 

 Cercyon the rnesosternum is not produced, and the prosternum 

 is keeled over. "In the larva? of Cercyon and Sphceridium, 

 which represent the Ilydrophiline type modified for life on dry 

 land (though in humid places) we find neither lateral abdomi- 

 nal appendages nor even true feet, the animal wriggling its 

 way through the debris amongst which it lives, whilst the last 

 abdominal segment is the largest of all and is often armed 

 with hooks." (Schiodte.) 



SILPHID.E Leach. The Carrion or Sexton beetles are useful 

 in burying decaying bodies, in which they lay their eggs. By 

 living in the vicinity of carrion, and by their veiy clavate 

 antennae and flattened head and body, and the black nauseous 

 fluid they give out, the common species are readily recognized. 



