THE CANADIAN ENTOMOLOGIST. 261 



that it looks like a bit of rotten bark or dry earth and easily escapes 

 detection when it drops to the ground with its legs tightly folded. The 

 male has two horn-like projections upon the thorax and also two minute 

 ones on the front of his head. Those on the thorax are more than an 

 eighth of an inch long, flattened inwardly at the end and fringed with a 

 light pubescence. The beetles are found abundantly during the summer 

 and autumn, feeding upon the large woody fungi which spring from stumps 

 and decaying trees. While the beetles are found imbedded in holes 

 gnawed in the surface, the larva; in different stages will be obtained by 

 breaking apart the fungus, in which they burrow out cells until the whole 

 mass is full of holes and tunnels filled with excrement. The grubs are 

 long and c) T lindrical, attaining when full grown a length of three-quarters 

 of an inch, and have two spines on the last segment, as have the larvae 

 of many species of this family. 



Diaperis hydni is a small stout beetle, a quarter of an inch long, com- 

 mon in fungus growing upon old and decaying Beech trees (such as are 

 infested by Dicerca divaricata and Tremex columba). It is very smooth 

 and glossy, and is jet black with the exception of the elytra. These are 

 light brown and are marked by two small black dots just behind the 

 thorax and by two larger ones midway between these and the tip. They 

 are also ornamented by lines of minute punctures, hardly visible to the 

 naked eye, and not interrupting the glistening appearance of the beetle. 



Hoplocephala bicornis is .a little dark greenish beetle, found in great 

 numbers in the dry leathery fungus which grows, like overlapping scales, 

 on hardwood stumps. Although this beetle is less than one-fifth of an 

 inch long, the male may be easily distinguished by the two little spines or 

 horns which he bears on his head, and from which the species derives its 

 name. They soon reduce the dry fungus to a white powdery state. 



Mycetophagus pwictatus is abundant in the fresh, soft, white fungi which 

 grow from the bark of various trees, not in compact masses, but laminated 

 or gilled beneath like Toadstools. On giving the tree a smart tap the 

 beetles will shower down from between the gills upon a beating net held 

 below. They are nearly one-fourth of an inch long, and are black, except 

 the yellowish elytra, which are marked by a black spot surrounding the 

 scutel, a black band across near the tip and two black spots midway 

 between this band and the thorax. Associated with them are generally 

 found numbers of a smaller but very similarly colored species, M, 

 flexuosus. 



