SCYDM^NID^. 



439 



The larvjB are crustaceous, flattened, with the sides of the 

 body often serrated, black, and of a fetid odor. They undergo 

 their transformations in an oval cocoon. In Necrophorus (Fig. 

 346, N. Aniericanus Oliv.) the antennse have ten apparent 

 joints, and the rounded club is 

 four-jointed. The genus Sil2)ha, of 

 which S. Lapjionica Ilerbst (Fig. 

 383, larva fully grown ; 384, young,, 

 from Labrador) is a common spe- 

 cies, differs in the third joint of 

 the antenna being no longer than 

 the second, but shorter than the 

 first. In NecropliUus the third joint 

 is as long as the fii'st. N. Surina- 

 mensis Fabr. has a yellow thorax 

 with a central irregular black spot. 

 Catop)s and its allies live in fungi, 

 carrion and ants' nests, and are 

 small, black, oval insects. The 

 Fig. 384. eyeless Adelnps Idrtus Tellk. is Wind, wanting the 

 eyes, and is found in Mammoth Cave. Anisotoma and allies, 

 with eleven-jointed antennae, are oval and sometimes hemis- 

 pherical, and capable of being rolled up into a ball. 

 They are of small size and found in fungi, or under 

 the bark of dead trees. Agathidium (Fig. 385, larva 

 of the European A. seminulum) has the club of the 

 antennae three-jointed. Clamhus and allies comprise 

 exceedingly minute species, found in decaying vege- 

 table matter. 



An aberrant form is Brathinus, two species of which, 

 B. nit kins Lee. and B. varicornis Lee, have been 

 found from Lake Superior to Nova Scotia, about the ^'»- ■^^• 

 roots of grass in damp places. According to Leconte, they arf 

 small shiny insects of graceful form, and distinguished by the 

 prominent middle coxae. 



Scydm.?-:nid^ Leach. The species of this small group differ 

 from the Pselaphidm to Avhich they are closely allied by their 

 long elj^tra and distant conical posterior coxae. They are mi- 



