﻿234 BRITISH BEETLES. 



eleven — in the antennae of certain of its species^ of Avliich, 

 however, we possess but one, probably introduced from 

 abroad. 



Their femora are clavate, and tibise slender and wiry, 

 •with obsolete apical spurs ; their mentum more or less 

 hexagonal, their labial palpi apparently bi-articulate, the 

 third joint being soldered to the second, which is in- 

 flated; their mandibles bifid at the apex (sometimes 

 very minutely so), and their maxillse bilobed, but with 

 the outer lobe obsolete. 



These insects are by most authors placed between the 

 CrytophagidcB and Mycetophagida, and a very clear 

 statement of the reasons for thus locating them is given 

 by Mr. Wollaston in the ' Entomologists' Monthly Ma- 

 gazine,' vol. i. p. 14. But it appears from the evidence 

 afforded that the parts of the mouth are certainly feebly 

 developed, the ligula having been variously described, and 

 being not satisfactorily visible ; the labial palpi, although 

 in reality not of so abnormal a structure as to consist of 

 only two joints, yet requiring a high power and pola- 

 rized light to shovv even the suture in the middle of 

 what has hitherto been considered the apical joint, and 

 the maxillse exhibiting a considerable amount of atrophy. 

 It would, therefore, seem inadvisable to place this family 

 among those of so much higher development, even if 

 the debased structure of all their tarsi, their brittle in- 

 teguments, and the wiry nature of their legs (which are 

 sometimes partially retractile), did not still further 

 separate them. 



Our species of Lathridius are found in refuse heaps, 

 dry wood, etc., the largest, L. lardarius (Plate XVI, 

 Fig. 3), occurring plentifully in grassy places in some 

 of the midland counties. It received its unsuggestive 



