62 THE ORDER OF COLEOPTERA. 



Family XIII. CRYPTOPHAGID^. 



This family name means essentially the same as the preceding one, 

 and implies that the insects which compose it feed upon Cryptogamous 

 l)lants, which include the mushrooms and fungi. They are very small 

 insects, usually less than one-tenth of an inch in length, of a light-yel- 

 lowish brown color, and usually having a silken lustre, produced by a 

 microscopically fine pubescence. They are distinguished from the 

 Mycetophagidte by their usually smaller size, their finer pubescence, 

 the absence of spots, and in the typical and most numerous genus by 

 little saw-like teeth along the sides of the thorax. The C. cellaris and 

 C. crinitus are often found in cellars. 



Upwards of thirty N. A. species have been described. 



Family XIV. BYRRHID^. 



The Byrrhidai are distinguished from all other pentamerous clavicorns 



by their short and very strongly arched or convex bodies, taken in con- 



[Fig. 25.] nection with the hairs or minute scales by which the surface 



of their bodies is more or less clothed and ornamented. The 



family includes moderately large and very small species 



— some of the species of the typical genus Byrrhus* being from 



one-quarter to one-half of an inch in length. All the other 



beetles of this tribe, which have very strongly convex or sub- 



BYRmius:-! p-lobular bodies, are distinguished from the Byrrhida? by being 



beetle; 2, hind * ' * ^ 



le^, partially small or Very small insects, with a shining or polished surface. 



folded up and ' ' <^ ^ 



seen from Thc ByrrhldiB are furthcr distinguished by the extreme con- 



^^'ithin— after '' » ^ 



Westwood. tractility of their members — the joints of their legs being ca- 

 pable of being shut so closely upon each other and upon the body, that 

 they are scarcely distinguishable, except upon close inspection. This, 

 together with their sub-globular form, suggested toLinnajus the specific 

 name of lyUuJa., for a European species, from its resemblance to a pill or 

 little ball of inanimate matter. These insects are found upon the ground, 

 often in sandy situations, also at the roots of trees and grass. Some 

 species are known to feed upon the mosses. 

 Thirty-two N. A. species are known. 



* This name, which is supposed to have been derived from the Greek bursa — a hide, from .some fan- 

 cied resemblance in texture, was originally given to these insects by Liunama, in the twelfth edition 

 «)f the Systcma Natttra; in 1766. Mr. Crotch, in his recent Check List of N. A. Coleoptera, suppresses 

 this name and adojits the name of Cistela, previously given to this genus by Geolfroy, but since ap- 

 plied to a genus of heteromerous beetles. But we i)refer to retain the name given by Liumeus, and 

 established by universal usage for more than a century. 



