Coleoptera 2 t 9 



beetles in which the body is elongate, the thorax being narrower 

 than the elytra, and the head prominent. The eleven-segmented 

 feelers are usually serrate, but sometimes end in a distinct club. 

 The presternum is short and the elytra completely cover the hind- 

 body which has five or six evident sternites. The legs are long 

 and the feet five-segmented, but in some genera the fourth is hardly 

 recognisable, and in others the first is also very small. The larv^ 

 are hairy, and bright red or brown in colour ; the head has five 

 ocelli on either side and two-segmented feelers ; the thoracic seg- 

 ments have hard tergites, but the hind-body is fleshy, except the 

 last segment which bears two points above and a short pro-leg 

 below. The larv2 feed on small insects, and often devour the grubs 

 of bees. The beetles live on trees or in carrion. The family is 

 very abundant in the tropics, but scarcer in cooler regions. 



Ptinidae. — The Ptimda are a large family of small oblong or oval 

 •beetles with firm skin. The pronotum usually covers the head 

 in great part, like a hood. The feelers are thread-like, saw-like, or 

 comb-like. The convex elytra entirely cover the hind-body which 

 has five visible sternites. The legs are long with thighs usually 

 clubbed at the tip, and the feet have five segments. The larvx 

 are white fleshy grubs, bent in a half-circle like those of the Scara- 

 baeidx. The species of this family are generally distributed ; they 

 live in waste substances, decaying vegetable matter and old wood. 

 Anobium striatum is often found in its larval and perfect stages in 

 furniture, and the tapping of its stout mandibles gives rise to the 

 familiar "death-tick." 



Cissidae — The Cissldde are a family of very small beetles with 

 clubbed feelers of eight to ten segments, and the head and pronotum 

 in the male armed with spines or projecting plates. There are 

 five sternites visible in the hind-body, and the feet have only four 

 evident segments. The beetles of the family are widely distributed, 

 and live in fungi or rotting wood. The larv2 are white, fleshy 

 grubs, but their tail-segment bears two long curved spines. The 

 Cissids are found in all parts of the world. 



Cerambycidae — The CerambydJie or Longhorn Beetles form one 

 of the largest and best marked families of the Coleoptera. They 

 are beetles of large or moderate size, and elongate form ; frequently 

 brightly coloured. The eyes are almost always concave on their 

 forward edge : the feelers usually very long and thread-like, rarely 

 saw-shaped or comb-shaped, and never clubbed. The mandibles are 

 strong, and the palps of the second maxillse have three segments. 

 The prothorax is narrower than the elytra, usually cylindrical, 

 sometimes toothed at the sides ; the elytra nearly always cover the 

 hind-body. The legs are sometimes stout and sometimes slender, 

 the thighs often clubbed and the shins usually spined at the tip. 

 The feet have five segments, but the fourth is very minute and 

 fused with the fifth so that only four seem to be present ; the third 

 is broad and bilobed, and the first three are usually densely clothed 



