Beetles 



261 



Fig. 356. — Rove-bee- 

 tle, Creophilus vil- 

 losus. (One and one- 

 half times natural 

 size.) 



C. viUosits (Fig. 356), common all over the country, is about f inch long, 

 blackish, with an incomplete broad transverse patch of yellowish-gray hairs 

 across the elytra and another on the second and third abdominal segments. 

 Leistotrophus is a genus with but one American species, L. cingulalus, about 

 same size as the preceding, but of grayish-brown color 

 indistinctly spotted with brown and with a golden tinge 

 on the tip of the abdomen. Staphylinus is a genus of 

 twenty species or more; 5. maciilosus, 1 inch long, is 

 dark cinnamon-brown with a row of squarish black 

 spots along the middle of the abdomen; S. cinna- 

 mopterits, ^ inch long, is cinnamon-colored, with 

 blackish abdomen; S. tomentosus, \ inch long, is deep 

 dull black; 5. violaceus, J inch long, is black with 

 thorax and elytra violet. Not uncommon along sandy 

 seashore in California is a curious light-brown wing- 

 less rove-beetle, Thinopinus piciiis, with very short 

 elytra, each with an open black ring, and with a double row of small black 

 dots on the abdomen. Its abdomen is short and rather broad 



Another family of carrion-beetles of comparatively few species, some of 

 which, however, are familiar and widely distributed, is that of the Silphidas, 



or burying-beetles. Both adults and larvae 

 feed almost exclusively on decaying flesh. 

 The antenna: of most species have the last 

 four or five segments expanded and fused 

 so as to form a conspicuous little ball or a 

 compact club. Two genera include most 

 o the familiar species, although the one 

 hundred North American species of the 

 family represent thirty different genera. 

 These two are Silpha (Fig. 357), the roving 

 carrion-beetles, and Necrophorus (Fig. 

 358), the burying-beetles. The charac- 

 teristic shape and appearance of these two 

 types are well shown in the figures. The 

 species of Silpha are short, broad-bodied, 

 flat, dull blackish, and with the elytra rather 

 leathery than horny, and lined longitudinally with shallow grooves. The 

 prothorax is subcircular, with thin projecting margins. The larvae (Fig. 

 359) and adults are found in and underneath [)utrid flesh. The larva> 

 are apparently more active than the adults. Silpha lapponica, a common 

 dull black form in both Europe and America, is said to enter houses in Lap- 

 land to eat the stores of animal provisions. S. americana (PI. II, Fig. 5) has 



Fig. 357. Fig. 358. 



Fig. 357. — Carrion-beetle, Silpha 

 noveboracensis. (One and one-half 

 times natural size.) 



Fig. 358, — Burying-beetle, Necropho- 

 rus margiuatus. (One and one- 

 half times natural size.) 



