FIELD BOOK OF INSECTS 



larvae are predaceous but the following, among others, 

 unfortunately is not. 



Silvanus The enlarged figures on Plate LXXVI 



surinamensis are sufficiently descriptive except as to 

 color ; the adult is chestnut-brown and the larvae are dirty 

 white with darker areas. It is one of the most abundant 

 beetles in all kinds of stored grains, especially in the 

 South, and it is sometimes destructive to dried fruits. 

 It is not a weevil, but two of its nicknames are Grain- 

 weevil and Saw-toothed Weevil, the latter referring to its 

 thorax. "The larva, when living in granular material, 

 like meal, usually builds a thin case out of the particles 

 and the whitish pupa may be found within. When the 

 insect is living in substances like fine flour it does not 

 build a case " (Herrick). It is cosmopolitan in its distribu- 

 tion. Several other Cucujids also feed on stored grain, 

 fruits, and nuts, e. g. Cathartus advena, which is particu- 

 larly fond of such as are stale. It is about the same size 

 and color as surinamensis but the pronotum is straight- 

 edged and nearly square. 



Sharp states that the " Colydiidae, Cucujidae, and Rhysso- 

 didse, exhibit relations not only with other families of 

 Coleoptera Polymorpha, but also with most of the great 

 series; Adephaga, Rhyncophora, Phytophaga, and Hetero- 

 mera, being each closely approached." 



The CRYPTOPHAGID.E are usually less than .1 in. long 

 and "often of a light yellowish-brown color, with a silken 

 lustre produced by a very fine pubescence. Their habits 

 are exceedingly variable, some living in fungi, others 

 about wood and chip piles or in cellars, beneath dead leaves, 

 in rotten logs, or on flowers." The last three of the eleven 

 antennal joints are enlarged, loosely forming a club. 

 Some of the males have only 4 joints, instead of 5, in each 

 hind tarsus; the front and middle coxae are very small 

 and deeply imbedded. 



To the MYCETOPHAGID.E "belong a limited number of 

 small oval, slightly convex beetles which live on fungi and 

 beneath bark. They have the upper surface hairy and 



300 



