﻿116 BRITISH BEETLES. 



In Serica the antennae are nine-jointed, but the club 

 varies in number ; our British species, <S. brimnea, having 

 three joints, which are very long and conspicuous in the 

 male. This insect, cylindrical in shape, with long and 

 slender (but stiff) legs, of a light testaceous-red colour 

 with opaline or silky reflections, is nocturnal in its ha- 

 bits; and may be found in spiders' webs, sand-pits, 

 water-troughs, etc, frequently " coming to grief" on ac- 

 count of its delicate structure. I have seen a red ant 

 dragging a disabled but living specimen along the bot- 

 tom of a sand-pit. 



The little Homaloplia, shorter and darker in colour, 

 is diurnal in its habits, and may be found (but rarely) 

 settled in flowers near woods. It has shorter front tarsi, 

 and is clothed with more decided pubescence. 



The HoPLiDiE are here represented by a single ge- 

 nus and species, Hoplia philanthus, a small, robust, 

 dark-coloured insect, with scanty bluish-silvery scales, 

 remarkable for its habit of flying for only a short time 

 in the hottest part of the day, and then hiding in 

 flowers, etc. This family is subject to considerable va- 

 riations in form and structure, but has the labrum in- 

 distinct ; the club of the anteuute three-jointed ; the 

 anterior coxse projecting ; the hooks of the tarsi unequal ; 

 and the ventral segments soldered together, the sixth 

 being generally indistinct. The genus Hoplia has the 

 hooks of the posterior tarsi simple ; and the males are 

 generally narroAver than the females, with one tooth less 

 in the anterior tibiae, which are more slender, and the 

 hinder legs stronger, with more robust hooks to the 

 tarsi. H. philanthus has ten joints to the antennae. 



The Geotrupid/E have the antennae eleven- jointed 

 (the club having three joints) the eyes entirely divided 



