FIELD BOOK OF INSECTS. 



head is yellow with black spots. In both, the light color 

 is yellow. The amount of black on the elytra is very 

 variable, sometimes covering nearly the whole elytra. 

 Adults of marginatus appear in the spring and early 

 summer, while those of pennsyhanicus are autumn crea- 

 tures, delighting especially in the goldenrod. 



The subfamily Drilinae has but recently been doubtfully 

 detected in America. Telegeusis was described from the 

 Pacific Coast by Horn and is put in this subfamily by 

 some authorities. It was found in 1916 by the author 

 in Arizona. The maxillary lobe is nearly as long as the 

 beetle. 



MALACHIID^E 



There are not many species in this family. The elytra 

 are soft, as in the Lampyridas; but Malachiidae are not 

 luminous, and they have only five or six visible, ventral, 

 abdominal segments. All of them are found on flowers 

 or herbage, some only in moist or low places, where they 

 are said to feed on insect eggs, larvae, and smaller insects 

 generally. The larvae, so far as known, are predaceous. 

 Collops quadrimaculatus (Plate LXXIX) is one of our 

 largest and commonest species. The head and abdomen 

 are black; pronotum and elytra, reddish-yellow, each 

 of the latter having two blue or bluish-black spots. 



The Checkered Beetles are rather small, but, for the 

 most part, they are graceful and pretty. The thorax is 

 generally elongate and often much narrower than either 

 the head or the combined elytra. Some look like ants; 

 others resemble Lampyrids. The n- (or, rarely, 10-) 

 jointed antennas are enlarged toward the tip somewhat 

 like a club. The tarsi are all 5-jointed but the first 

 and fourth joints are often inconspicuous; all but the fifth 

 have membranous appendages. The usually pubescent 

 adults occur chiefly on flowers, about flowing sap, and on 

 the foliage of trees and low shrubs. Both they and the 

 larvae are predaceous, especially on wood-boring larvae. 



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