82 



P. p!/soderus is a much smallei* beetle, being but three quarters of an inch in length. 

 Its colour is a dark brown ; the hinder angles of the thorax are produced in acute spines, 

 and the tubercles are not prominent. It is common in the Southern States and emits a 

 light equal in intensity to that of our native " fire-flies," but constant instead of inter- 

 mittent. 



In the Phillipine Islands is found a very large species of Elater, called Oxynopterus 

 (sharp-winged) Cummingii. It is a large, reddish beetle and the male has fine pectinate 

 antennae. The prosternal spine is stated by Wood to be as large as a crow-quill, and three- 

 fourths of an inch long, so that its powers of leaping and clicking must be well marked. 



The genus Pachyderes is distinguished by having the thorax twice as broad as the 

 elytra ; Semioti has the tips of the elytra spined ; and the males of Macromalocera, from 

 Swan River, Australia, have the antennae as long or even longer than the body. 



Of seventy species found in Gi-eat Britain, the largest is Ludius ferruyineoics, a dirty 

 red beetle about an inch long. 



Turning now to Canadian beetles, the first sub-family is named Mccnemidcf, and 

 comprises a few small compressed beetles found under bark or on leaves, and rather un- 

 common. Wood says that the prothorax in these species fits too tightly against the base 

 of the elytra to admit of them leaping, but Le Conte claims for some a feeble power to 

 do so. The second sub-family Cerophytidce consists also of a few species of small beetles, 

 living under bark, and rarely, from their size and habits, seen or captured. 



The third and last bears the family name — JSlateridce — and includes all of our re- 

 maining species. Of these the largest and most striking examples are contained in the 

 genus Almis (meaning "dull"' coloured). There are four species found in Northern 

 America, viz. : Ifelanops, Gorgops, Occidatus and Myops, of which the two last (at least) 

 are found in Canada. A. occulatus (Fig. 52), must be familiar to 

 nearly all my readers, and is the largest of our Elatei-s, varying in 

 length from one and a quarter inches to one and three quarters. 



Its general colour is a deep glossy black ; the under surface of the 

 body, and the legs being thickly powdered with white. The broad, 

 almost square, thorax is also powdered (but usually much rubbed), 

 with the exception of two large, oval spots of a rich black A^elvety ap- 

 pearance, and rimmed with white so as to seem like great staring eyes, 

 often causing the thorax to be mistaken for the head by those ignor- 

 ant of an insect's construction. These beautiful markings have deter- 

 mined its specific name ; for occidatus is simply the Latin form of 

 " eyed." The elytra are marked by longitudinal, impressed lines, 

 and are sprinkled with bright white spots, of the same powdery 

 riy. 52. substance which covers the rest of the body. 



In early summer it is found crawling slowly, or sunning itself on trees, fences, build- 

 ings, paths, etc., and is easily captured. In Duncan's "Transformations of Insects" the 

 larva is shown crawling on the ground, and the pupa in a cell beneath the surface, but 

 Dr. Harris states that "it undergoes its transformations in the trunks of trees." He 

 found them in old apple trees — the larvae feeding upon the wood. The following is a por- 

 tion of his description : — • 



" These larviie are reddish-yellow grubs, proportionately much broader than the other 

 kinds, and very much flattened. One of them, which was found fully-grown early in 

 April, measured two inches and a half in length, and nearly four-tenths of an inch across 

 the middle of the body, and was not much narrowed at either extremity. The head was 

 broad, brownish and rough above." 



Soon after the gi'ub was found it cast its skin and entered the pupa state, and at the 

 proper time emerged as a beetle. 



A myojjs is a- somewhat smaller and less robust beetle, and varies more in size, some 

 in my collection being only one inch long. In general appearance it is much like occida- 

 tus, hut is not nearly so handsome an insect. The markings are less distinct, the colour- 

 ing more greyish, and the eye-like spots on the thorax are much smaller and duller, whence 

 it has received its name of my ops, or the " short-sighted " cdans. 



It is much more common in this neighbourhood than occulatus. To show how readily 



