260 THE CANADIAN ENTOMOLOGIST. 



Megalodacne heros is the finest beetle which I have found feeding upon 

 fungus. It belongs to the Erotylidse, a family known by the large antennal 

 club, formed by an enlargement and flattening of the three last joints. 

 '1 his family is said to be largely developed in tropical America, where its 

 members are mostly leaf-eating beetles, differing in this respect from nor- 

 thern species which live upon fungi. One day last summer (9th June) I 

 met with a number of large chocolate-colored fungi growing upon the 

 roots and bark of the stumps of some large Hemlocks recently felled. 

 Hiding in crevices of the bark, or in the damp chips and leaves from 

 amidst which the fungi on the roots were springing, I discovered numer- 

 ous specimens of this handsome beetle and collected about thirty, which 

 had been recently feeding upon the fungus, as evidenced by the holes 

 gnawed therein. 



The beetles varied much in size, being from four to seven-eighths ot 

 an inch long. They are of an elongated oval shape, three times as long 

 as broad. The head, bearing the distinguishing club-tipped antennas, is 

 inserted to the eyes in the almost square thorax. The beetle is broadest 

 across the base of the elytra, which taper gradually and are rounded off 

 at the tip. Each elytron is marked by two orange patches ; the one at the 

 base is somewhat in the form of a Maltese cross with the lower arm 

 broken off, but varies in different specimens ; the other is an irregular 

 band about one-third the distance from the tip. With these exceptions 

 the beetle is of a jet black, highly polished, and is a handsome insect. 

 About six weeks later I visited the same locality in the expectation of 

 obtaining some more of these fine beetles, but could find none. In some 

 fresh fungi of the same kind I found numbers of large stout grubs, from 

 one-half to over three-quarters of an inch long, with a broad black band 

 across the top of each segment. They were probably the larva? of this 

 beetle, but as I did not succeed in rearing any of those I took, and could 

 not visit the place again, they may have been those of some fungi-eating 

 Tenebrio, to some larvae of which family they had much resemblance. 



From the same fungi from which I had previously taken the above- 

 mentioned beetles, and which were now hard and dry, I obtained nearly 

 forty specimens of BoUtothents comutus, the majority females. This 

 beetle belongs (with the two species next to be described) to the Tene- 

 brionidse, the members of which family live chiefly in or about dead 

 stumps and logs, hiding in crevices or under bark, fungus and moss. It 

 is a dark brown or dull black beetle, thickly covered with tubercles, so 



