LAND SCAVENGER-BEETLES. S6 



Indeed, in some of tlio families which are usually classed with the pen- 

 tameious clavicorus, both of the leading characters, the clubbed antenna^ 

 and the five-jointed tarsi, either partially or wholly fail. Some of these 

 insects also depart widely in their liabits from the scavengers proper, 

 and might therefore very properly be separated as a tribe by themselves' 

 were it not for the absence of any very strongly marked community of 

 cliaracters. In order to guard against mistake we have thought it best 

 to throw these exceptional families together, as a sub-tribe, under the 

 title of sub-clavicornes. 



The tribe of land-scavengers may therefore be divided into two sub 

 tribesMi tiering very considerably from each other, both in structure and 

 habits, and which may be distinguished as follows: 



1st Sub-tribe. — Glaviconics, projjer. Body more or less oval ; antenna- 

 clavate or capitate; usually three, sometimes more than three Joints in 

 the club ; usually five joints in all the tarsi, or, at least, in the anterior 

 oiu's ; subsist mostly upon animal or vegetable substances, in a state of 

 decay. This division includes the families Silphida^, Scaphidii(hc, Mis 

 teriihe, Nitidulida^, Dermestidie, Mycetophagida*,, Cryptophagi<la', 

 liyj iliidic, Anisotomida^, Phalacrida', Trichopterigida^ and Scydmenida'. 



LM Sub-tribe. — Sub-ciav iconics. Body more or less elongated ; anten- 

 na', almost filiform, or granose, or moderately and loosely clavate, some 

 times with less than three Joints in the club; tarsi, in many, less than 

 live Jointed. Found mostly under the bark of dead trees. They never 

 feed upon dea«l animal matter, but recent observations show that many 

 of them are carnivorous or vermivorous, at least in their larva state, 

 preying upon the soft larva- of the wood and bark-eating insects. 

 Composed of the families Trogositiduj, Oucujidie, Colydiidie and Lath- 

 ridiida'. 



FAMILIES OP LAND-SCAVENGERS 

 Sub-tribe 1st. Clavicornes. 



A. Body oval or elliptical; antenna' clavate or capitate. Anterior 

 tarsi almost alwa^'s five-Jointed. 

 B. Large insects, the smaller not much less thau half an inch in 

 length (excei)t Catops.) Hind trochanters prominent. 



Thorax with a thin margin Sim>hid.*:. 



B B. Small insects less than half an inch, mostly less than (luarter 

 of an inch in length. 

 O. Wing-cases shorter than the abdomen. 

 D. Abdomen thick, conical and pointed, first segment very 



long Scaphldud^. 



D D. Abdomen rounded behind. 



