CIGARETTE-BEETLES. 67 



especially towards the end of the elytra, where the abdomen is 

 very broad. The antenna? are also short, a little enlarged at the 

 tip, and in many species the males have them curiously knotted. 

 Upon the sides of their body they possess soft and orange- 

 colored organs, which become plainly visible if the beetles are 

 taken up with the fingers, as in such a case these vesicles are 

 said to exhale strong odors, offensive to cannibal insects,, hence 

 they may be considered as organs of defense. 



Members of this family are frequently seen in the flowers of 



Fig. 76. — yialachius marginicollis. Greatly enlarged. After Smith. 



fruit-producing plants ; they feed also on other insects and their 

 eggs. Others have been found in the burrows made by bark- 

 beetles. To show how such beetles look an illustration of a 

 Moloch ins is given in Fig. 76. 



FAMILY PTINIDAE. 



(Death-watch ; Cigarette-beetles) . 



This family is composed of rather small insects, rarely ex- 

 ceeding a quarter of an inch in length ; the family as such is not 

 easily defined, as it contains an aggregation of very odd-looking 

 forms. As a rather general character they have a more or less 

 cylindrical, firm body, solid wing-covers, and a head that can 

 be retracted. Some are possum-like in their method of mimick- 

 ing death, and they do this so thoroughly well that it is almost 



