428 ARTICULATES : INSECTS. 



PTINIDJE, Leach. This Family comprises small dull- 

 colored beetles, obtuse at each end, with the head small 

 and immersed in the thorax to the eyes, and the an- 

 tennas long, and constantly in motion when the insect 

 is walking. When disturbed they feign death, with- 

 drawing their head and antennae, and contracting their 

 legs, and will suffer themselves to be pulled to pieces 

 rather than show signs of life. 



The Genus Anobius contains the Death-Watches, which 

 make a ticking noise, that is regarded by the ignorant 

 with great superstition. This ticking is produced during 

 the pairing season by striking their jaws upon the object 

 upon which they are standing, and is a signal which is 

 replied to by the mate. 



TENEBRIONIDYE, Latr., OR MEAL-WORM FAMILY. 

 This large Family comprises beetles which have the body 

 oblong or ovate, depressed, or slightly elevated, antennae 

 clavate, feet short, and the colors black or brown. 



The Genus Tcncbrio contains the species whose larva 

 is the well-known meal-worm. 



MORDELLID^:, Leach. This Family comprises small, 

 wedge-shaped, glistening, pubescent, black beetles, which 

 are found upon flowers, and which, when disturbed, leap 

 like fleas. The larvae live in the pith of plants. 



MELOID^E, Gyllenh., OR BLISTERING-BEETLE FAMILY. 

 This Family comprises beetles which are mainly soft, 

 and celebrated for secreting cantharidine, a blistering 

 property, which has caused them to be extensively used 

 in pharmacy. They are also remarkable in the succes- 

 sive forms of the larvae, in the first of which they are very 

 small active parasites, infesting bees. The adults are 

 called Cantharides. They have the head broad, antennas 

 long, wing-covers soft and more or less bent downward, 

 and they feign death when alarmed. The Genus Can- 

 tharis, or Lytta, contains the principal species. 



