﻿THE HETEKOMERA. 157 



the basal joint of the hind tarsi is short, whilst in the 

 other genera it is much elongated. D. boleti, a very 

 convex, shining, black species, with the apex of the ely- 

 tra and the two transverse bands yellow, is one of our 

 rarest species, no instance of its capture having been re- 

 corded for many years. Its larva is blind, and feeds on 

 boleti growing on the trunks of trees, enclosing itself 

 in a cell with a silky lining before undergoing its final 

 metamorphoses. 



Scaphidema, smaller, more depressed, and brassy, has 

 its intercoxal projection wide, quadrangular, and trun- 

 cated in front. It occurs not uncommonly near London 

 among dead leaves, and at the bottoius of hedges. Its 

 larva, as in the genus next mentioned, has two minute 

 spines at the apex of the abdomen, and lives in Boleti 

 under bark, making no cell to change in. It has three 

 ocelli on each side of its head. Platydema, the larva of 

 which has four ocelli on each side, is exceedingly like 

 a Chrysomela, and is found in the New Forest, but 

 rarely. 



The UlomidyE are here represented by a few incon- 

 spicuous insects, of which the majority are doubtless im- 

 ported, being found in flour, merchandise, etc. They 

 have no trochantina to the intermediate femora ; and 

 their eyes (which are in nearly all the species almost 

 divided into two on each side) have their greater bulk on 

 the lower surface, except in Hi/pophlosus. The perfect 

 insect and larvae of Gnathocerus cornutus (the male of 

 which has its head armed with conspicuous and sharp 

 projections) are often found in bakers' shops, where also 

 TrlboUinn ferrugmeum occurs : the latter, however, some- 

 times exists in its larval state in neglected collections of 

 insects, which are liul^le to attack from many other enc- 



