THEIR RELATION TO MAN 187 



In the Coleoptera or beetles there are several families 

 that are scavengers in whole or in part, and some of 

 these families contain very large numbers of species. 

 In a very general way the scavengers may be recog- 

 .nized bv the clavate or club-shaped antenna, combined 

 with five-jointed feet or tarsi, and thus belonging to 

 the series " Claviconiia." 



The StaphyiinidcB or rove-beetles are found wherever 

 decaying or fermenting material occurs, although by 

 no means all the Staphylinids are scavengers. They 

 are long, slender, somewhat flattened beetles, with 

 wing-covers or elytra extending over only two segments 

 of the abdomen. The other segments are free and 

 flexible, often readily up-curved so that it sometimes 

 appears as if they intended to sting. Some of these 

 species are so small and slender that they are difficult 

 to see and some are of considerable size; sometimes 

 they are smooth and shining and sometimes densely 

 covered with short silky pile, both methods serving 

 to keep the insects clean in their often unsavory sur- 

 roundings. As an indication of their habits some of the 

 species have peculiarly sickening odors that in penetra- 

 tion and volume are altogether out of proportion to the 

 size of the insect producing them. In animal or vegeta- 

 ble decay, in excrement, under and in dead animals, in 

 the fermenting sap of injured or dying trees, in fungi of 

 all kinds — in all these places our Staphylinids occur and 

 everywhere do their share of the needed work. 



Closely allied to them come several families of 

 minute beetles, some of them of odd and bizarre shapes; 

 all of them with the enlargement or club of the antenna 

 well marked, and all of them feeders on dead or decay- 

 ing matter. Their names alone would tell us nothing; 

 to go into their habits and peculiarities would require 

 another book, for there are literallv hundreds of them. 



