﻿96 BRITISH BEETLES. 



under trees among dead leaves; the species of Liodes arc 

 not uncomraou in the black dust of old fungoid growth on 

 trunks of trees^ etc., in the north of England ; and the 

 Agatliidia are conspicuous from their habit of rolling 

 themselves up into black shining balls. 



The ScAPHiDiiD^ are represented in England by three 

 species of two genera, Scaphidium and Scaphisoma, the 

 former, found under logs of wood, in fungoid growth ; 

 and the latter in agarics and decomposing wood. Botli 

 are very agile, convex on the upper and under sides; rather 

 boat-shaped ; hard, shining, with very long and slender 

 legs, the intermediate and hinder pairs of which are far 

 apart ; the antennae, also, are exceedingly delicate in the 

 latter genus, the members of which are very small and 

 black ; Scctphidium being larger, with four red spots. 



The parts of the moutli are not conspicuously deve- 

 loped, the palpi (especially the labial pair), mandibles, 

 and labrum being small ; both lobes of the maxillae are 

 membraneous ; the head is small and deflexed ; the 

 thorax fitting close to the elytra, and in Scaphisoma en- 

 larged behind in the middle so as to cover the scutellum ; 

 the elytra truncated obliquely at the tip, leaving the 

 apex of the abdomen exposed, having a sutural and 

 lateral stria, and being covered with irregular scratches ; 

 the anterior coxse exserted and approximated, the tarsi 

 5-jointed, and the first segment of the abdomen very 

 large. 



The HisTERiD.E are hard, polished insects, usually 

 square and stout in build, thick, Ijut flat, or at most 

 slightly convex ; never pubescent ; generallj' black, though 

 sometimes spotted with red; and having the head re- 

 tractile, and the antennae and legs capable of being closely 

 packed to tbe body. The antennae have the basal joint 



