﻿THE HETEROMERA. 161 



in rotten cherry-wood, etc., and, when found (for it is 

 of rare occurrence) is generally seen in some numbers. 

 The remaining species, Eryx atra, is nocturnal in its 

 habits, frequenting old willow- trees, on which it is more 

 often seen by lepidopterists, — who hunt by night for 

 moths, — than by coleopterists. It is a dull black, oval, 

 convex insect; rather large, but, like all its allies, of very 

 delicate texture. Its larva, preparatory to undergoing 

 metamorphosis, forms a cell composed of w^oody fibres 

 glued together, and is the only one of this family known 

 to take any such precaution. 



In Cteniopus and Omophlus, both found about mari- 

 time plants, the males have the last abdominal segment 

 considerably excavated ; and in Cistela the antennae are 

 rather strongly serrated. 



The Lagriad^ are here only represented by one 

 genus and species, Lagria hirta, an insect utterly un- 

 like any of its allies, being very hairy, with a narrow 

 thorax, a neck to the head, long black antennae and 

 legs, and somewhat inflated elytra, which are widest and 

 shortest in the female. It is very soft and sluggish, 

 black, with yellow elytra, and abounds towards the 

 middle of summer in hedges, etc. Its elongate larva, 

 flat and white beneath, convex and yellow above, spotted 

 with black, and tufted with yellow hairs along the sides, 

 has been found under dead leaves at the foot of old 

 oak-trees ; but its food is not known, though it is sup- 

 posed to be carnivorous. 



The absence of any pectination to the under side of 

 the claws of the tarsi distinguishes this species from 

 any of the Cistelida ; its projecting, approximated, 

 conic anterior coxae separate it from the Tenebrionidcn 

 and their allies, and the structure of the cotyloid cavi- 



M 



