COLEOPTERA. 589 



is of a uniform black color (Fig. 718). Epicauta cinerea (E. 

 ci-ne're-a) is sometimes clothed throughout with 

 an ash-colored pubescence, and sometimes the 

 wing-covers are black, except a narrow gray 

 margin ; the two varieties were formerly consid- 

 ered distinct species: the first is commonly known 

 as the ash-colored Blister-beetle, the last as the 

 Margined Blister-beetle. Another common spe- 

 cies is the Striped Blister-beetle, Epicanta vittata (E. vit-ta'- 

 ta) ; this species is yellowish or reddish above, with the head 

 and prothorax marked with black, and with two black 

 stripes on each wing-cover. 



In the far West very many species of blister-beetles 

 occur so many, in fact, that we cannot undertake to specify 

 them here. 



The family RHIPIPHORID^E (Rhip-i-phor'i-dae) includes 

 a small number of beetles, which are very remarkable in 

 structure and habits. The wing-covers are usually shorter 

 than the abdomen, and narrowed behind (Fig. 719); sometimes 

 they are very small, and in one exotic genus they 

 are wanting in the female, which lacks the wings also, 

 and resembles a larva in form. The antennae are 

 FIG. 719. pectinate or flabellate in the males, and frequently 

 serrate in the females. The adult insects are found on 

 flowers. The larvae that are known are parasites, some in 

 the nests of wasps, and some on cockroaches. 



The family STYLOPID.E (Sty-lop'i-dce) includes a small 

 number of minute insects which differ so much from ordi- 

 nary beetles that they have been classed by some writers as 

 a distinct order, the Strepsiptera (Strep-sip'te-ra). In the 

 males the elytra are reduced to slender, leathery, club-shaped 

 appendages; while the wings are very large, fan-shaped, and 

 furnished with a few diverging veins. The females have 

 neither wings nor elytra, and resemble a larva in form. 

 They are always contained in the pupa case in the body of 

 a wasp or bee, which they infest parasitically. The point 



