COLEOPTERA 515 



vegetable matter and are often found boring in the woodwork of 

 buildings. Some are pests in drug-stores and groceries, where they 

 infest a great variety of substances both vegetable and animal. 

 Among the better-known species are the drug-store beetle, Sitodrepa 

 pamcea, which not only infests many kinds of drugs but is also some- 

 times a pest in groceries where it infests cereals ; and the cigarette- 

 beetle, Lasioderma sen icoriie, which infests dried tobacco and destroys 

 cigarettes and cigars by boring holes through them. 



To this family belongs the death-watch, Xestohium rufovillosum, 

 which bores in the timbers of buildings and makes a ticking sound by 

 striking its head or jaws against the walls of its burrows. This 

 sound heard in the night by superstitious watchers by sick-beds has 

 been supposed to portend death. 



The family BOSTRICHID^, or the powder-post beetles, includes 

 beetles which are elongate in form; the head is usually deflexed, and 

 protected by the thorax, which is then hood-like in form; and the 

 first ventral segment of the abdomen is scarcely longer than the 

 second. These beetles live almost exclusively in dry wood either in 

 cylindrical burrows or beneath the bark. Sometimes they infest 

 timbers to such an extent that the wood is largely reduced to powder, 

 hence the common name, powder-post beetles. The adult of one 

 species, AmpJncerus bicaiiddtiis, bores into the living twigs of fruit- 

 trees and grape-vines for food, but it breeds in dying wood, such as 

 prunings and dying branches. This species is known as the apple-twig 

 borer and also as the grape-cane borer. 



The family LYCTIDvE is composed of a small number of beetles 

 which resemble the powder-post beetles in habits. In this family the 

 head is prominent and not covered by the prothorax; and the first 

 ventral segment of the abdomen is much longer than the second. 

 Most of our species belong to the genus Lyctus. 



The family SPHINDIDyE is represented in North America only 

 by six small species, which are found in dry fungi which grow on the 

 trunks of trees and on logs. 



The family CISID.^ includes very small beetles, rarely exceeding 

 3 mm. in length, found under the bark of trees and in the dry and 

 woody species of fungi. The body is cylindrical; the prothorax is 

 prolonged over the head; the abdomen has five ventral segments, of 

 which the first is longer than the others; and the tarsi are all four- 

 jointed. There are nearly one hundred species in our fauna. 



Family SCARAB^ID^ 



The Scarabceids or Lamellicorn Beetles 



This very large family is represented in our fauna by nearly one 

 thousand species, and includes beetles that exhibit a wide range of 

 variation in size, form, and habits. They are mostly short, stout -bodied 

 beetles, of which the well-known June-bugs or May-beetles represent 

 the most familiar type. Th^ most useful character for distinguishing 



