254 



COLEOPTERA 



Fig. 131. — Larva of Tillus clonyatas. 

 (New Forest). A, Head ; B, front leg ; 

 C, teriiiiiiatiou of the body, more iiuig- 

 uified. 



by Diptera. Some of the species of Necrohia have been spread 

 by commercial intercourse, and JSf. rafjj^es appears to be now one 

 of the most cosmopolitan of Insects. The beautifully coloured 

 Corynctcs cocruleus is often found in our houses, and is useful, as 

 it destroys the death-watches (Auohium) that are sometimes very 

 injurious. Trichodes apiarius, a very lively -coloured red and 

 blue beetle, destroys the larvae of the lioney-bee, and Lampert 



lias reared TricJiodes alvearius 

 from the nests of Chcdicodunui 

 muraria, a mason-bee ; he re- 

 cords that one of its larvae, 

 after being full grown, remained 

 twenty -two months quiescent 

 and then transformed to a pupa. 

 Still more remarkable is a case 

 of fasting of the larva of Tri- 

 chodes ammios recorded by 

 ]\[ayet ; ^ this Insect, in its 

 immature form, destroys Acrl- 

 diuiii maroceanuDi ; a larva sent 

 from Algeria to M. Mayet refused such food as was offered to 

 it for a period of two and a half years, and then accepted 

 mutton and beef as food ; after being fed for aljout a year and a 

 half thereon, it died. Some Cleridae bear a great resemblance 

 to Insects of other families, and it appears probable that they 

 resemble in one or more points the Insects on wliich they feed. 

 The species are now very numerous, al)0ut 1000 being known, 

 but they are rare in collections : in Britain we have only nine 

 species, and some of them are now scarcely ever met with. 



Fam. 57. Lymexylonidae. — Elongate heetles/with soft integu- 

 ments, front and 'middle coxae cxserted, longitudinal in position; 

 tarsi si ender, five-jointed ; antennae short, serrate, hut rather broad. 

 Although there are only twenty or thirty species of this family, 

 they occur in most parts of the world, and are remarkaljle on 

 account of their habit of drilling cylindrical holes in hard wood, 

 after the manner of Anobiidae. The larva of Lymexylon nctvale was 

 formerly very injurious to timber used for constructing ships, but 

 of late years its ravages appear to have been of little importance. 

 The genus Atraetocerus consists of a few species of very abnornud 



•* Ann. k>oc. tut. France, 1S9J, p. 7. 



