66 



HAM-BEETLES. 



Another well-known beetle belongs here. It is frequently 

 called the "Red-legged Ham-beetle," (Necrobia rufipes Fab.). 

 This cosmopolitan insect is steel bine, with red legs, and is 

 clothed with fine hair. Its normal food is dead animal matter, 

 for which reason they are exceedingly numerous about glue-fac- 

 tories and slaughter-houses. If they confined their attention 

 strictly to such things, they could be called useful, notwithstand- 



T'i r. 7.".— Necrobia rufipes. Fab.; a, larva; b, hi ad of same; c, beetle. Enlarged. 

 Afier Division ol Entomology, U. S. Dipartment of Agriculture. 



ing what the owners of glue-factories might say, but these beetles 

 have learned from experience that smoked ham is much more 

 palatable, and for the reason of obtaining this food they enter 

 smoke-houses and pantries. The illustration, (Fig. 75), gives 

 the two stages of this insect, which sometimes causes considerable 

 losses, not so much on accouvt of what it eats as of what it spoils. 



FAMILY M ALACH 1 1 OAK. 



The beetles composing this family are all small, some very 

 small ; they resemble lightning-beetles in having soft bodies and 

 leathery wing-covers, but are very much shorter and broader, 



