1932.] 209 



almost exterminated by the removal of the logs and stumps in which it 

 occurred. When first I began collecting Molorchus minor was regarded as a 

 great rarity ; it has now become quite common in the London and Reading 

 districts ; M. umhellatarum, however, which used to be considered the 

 commoner of the two species, appears now to he very rare. Is anything 

 known of the history of Clytus {Playionotus) arcuatus as British? In old 

 collections it is fairly numerous, and I have a good series from these in my 

 collection ; I have never, however, heard of a recent capture, since I began 

 collecting. — W. W. Fowler, Earley Vicarage, Reading : August 1922. 



Dermestes lardnvms L. feeding on wood. — Some time last May I was asked 

 to investigate an attack by some insect on the woodwork in a large skin ware- 

 house in Carlisle. Quite expecting the depredator to be Anobium do^nesticum, 

 I was not a little surprised on visiting the place to find no trace of this or other 

 similar wood -boring pest, the cause of the trouble turning out to be Dermestes 

 lardariiis, a beetle which, of course, was present in numbers in such an 

 establishment among the various kinds of skin (hare, rabbit, etc.) stored there. 

 It appears that from time to time the skins are sent away from the warehouse, 

 and in the process of removal many larvae drop out on to the floors and creep 

 into any available crannies they can find, such places harbouring fragments of 

 akin and hair ; this limited food supply becoming exhausted, the larvae had 

 bored into the boards of the partitions which rest on end on the floors of the 

 warehouse. These boards appear to be of English Spruce, very old and dry, 

 almost of a corky consistence, in fact, and are strongly impregnated with the 

 odour of skins, and doubtless the larvae would be able to extract sufficient 

 nutriment from the wood to complete their life-cycle. Some of the burrows 

 were a foot or more long, and both larvae and mature beetles were present in 

 them. I might add that entrance to the wood had always been ettected at the 

 end of a board where it was much softer than on the sides. — F. H. Day, 

 Carlisle : August lOth, 1922. 



\_Cf. Ent. Mo. Mag. vol. xxi, p. 161, for an account of similar damage to 

 woodwork caut^ed by larvae oi Dermestes vulpinus at Qiieenborough. — J. J. W.] 



A classification of the Cucujidae based on larval characters. — Dr. A. 

 Boving's valuable paper on the larvae and pupae of certain social beetles of 

 the Family Cucujidae (" Zoologica," iii. No. 7, pp. 197-213, pis. vii-x. New 

 York, Dec. 1921) will interest British Coleopterists. He suggests that this 

 Family, according to their larval characters, may have to be divided into 

 four : Silvanidae, Cuc%(jidae, Laemophloeidae, and Scalidiidae. Of these the 

 first three are represented in Britain, and the characters taken from the larvae 

 of each of them, as tabulated by him, may be abridged thus : 



A. Maxillary mala (possibly lacinia) falciform, with terminal uncus ; externally 

 to uncus a more or less sharply defined, small setose region (possibly 

 reduced galea). Maxillary articulating area distinct. 



1. Oerci wanting Earn. Silvanidae. 



a. Antenna with second joint large and clavate, third joint very 

 small or wanting ; ocelli in two distinct groups 



Subfam. Silvaninae. 



T 



