INTRODUCTION cxxix 



very numerously represented. Many of the individuals, that are dislodged by beating 

 bushes, take wing and may sometimes be seen beating up against the wind to regain 

 their position. They are often observed in numbers on the upper side of the leaves, 

 remaining motionless, rarely active. Only a fraction of the number of known species, 

 however, occurs in profusion, many being very scarce. They breed in dead wood, and 

 when the bark is stripped from dead Koa trees, one sometimes finds the remains of 

 thousands of examples beneath this. They chiefly affect the same trees as the species 

 of Xyletobius, and in fact are generally taken in company with these. It is not definitely 

 known whether they are attacked by parasitic Hymenoptera, but it is most probable 

 that the small Chalcids of the family M iscogasteridae, which parasitize other small 

 Coleoptera, affect them also. They are sometimes found in the stomach of native 

 Drepanidid birds, but not as commonly as are the brassy weevils of the genus Oodemas. 

 Species of endemic Dermestidae are very commonly found in company with Miros- 

 ternus, and some of them superficially resemble the latter in appearance. Although 

 described first from the islands, Mirosternus is now known to inhabit tropical America, 

 and the Hawaiian forms are probably derivatives from a very ancient introduction from 

 that region. 



Cleridae. — Represented only by three widely distributed species, introduced, no 

 doubt, by man. The two species of Necrobia {rujipes and ruficollis) are often abundant 

 in the remains of dead animals, but Tarsostenus univittatus does not seem to flourish in 

 the islands. It is generally found on dead posts bored by various xylophagous beetles, 

 and we have only seen it at large at night time. 



Malacodermidae. — Helcogaster pectinatus has been found only in and around 

 houses in Honolulu, and we once observed a small swarm of males, entering a room 

 through the meshes of the mosquito blinds covering the window. Probably they were 

 attracted by a female somewhere within the room, but the latter was not observed. 



Caccodes debilis is likewise a Honolulu insect, generally found in or close to houses, 

 but once observed in a plantation of foreign trees a few miles from the town. Both 

 these species, sole representatives of the Malacoderms, are, doubtless, importations, 

 though not yet known elsewhere. 



Elateridae. — Five genera, each represented by a single species, are certainly 

 importations. Of these Melanoxanihus melanocephalus is often seen in the windows 

 of stores in the town of Honolulu, but is also found in the country. Adelocera 

 modesia is common on Oahu, but during the period of my systematic collecting was not 

 observed on the 6ther islands, though it may now have reached some of these. Simo- 

 dactylus chinamonieus is generally distributed throughout the group, the beetles being 

 often observed in numbers at the bases of leaves of liliaceous and other plants, and also 



F. H. I. . r 



