THE :\fAM.\rAIi NEST HEETLKS. 



271 



cr.arst'ly imiictui-od (linn tlinr:ix, the |miu-tures not (listant <iue from :in- 

 iitlicr iiuiro tliiiii tlioir own (liMiHOter. Liiiglli ;*.-4 mm. 



Lake, iMarshall Starke, Kosciusko and Steuben counties; fre- 

 quont. ^lay 20-October 26. 



Family VII. LEPTINID^E. 



.Majimal Nest Beetles. 



This family is represented in Indiana by a single small, flat 

 heetle. liaving the antenna^ slender and 11-jointed; eyes entirely 

 wanting ; thorax with apex truncate, base covering the base of elytra 

 and bi-oadly emarginate, without distinct side pieces beneath; seu- 

 tollum distinct; elytra rounded at tip, covering the abdomen; front 

 f0xa» small, globular, not separated by rhe prosternum ; hind coxae 

 narrow, transverse, meeting at middle; legs short, tibite flattened, 

 tarsi 5-jointed. 



But two species of the family are known 

 from North America. One inhabits the 

 Hudson Bay region; the other is common 

 to both Europe and America and lives with 

 small rodents and inseetivora, such as mice, 

 moles, shrews, etc., and also in the nests of 

 bumble-bees. If the nest of a mouse or 

 shrew be carefully removed from beneath 

 a log or other shelter and shaken over a 

 paper, a number of these little beetles will 

 probably be seen scampering away as fast 

 as their legs will carry them. Clias. Dury, 

 of Cincinnati, took 90 specimens of the 

 beetle from one nest and many others es- 

 caped before he could gather them in. As to whether they are para- 

 sites or guests of their hosts is still a mooted question, but Dury 

 states, and my observation bears out his supposition, that he 

 thinks them "only guests of the animals, as I have found them in 

 nests that have long since been deserted. " It is possible that they 

 may live upon the eggs and young of the mites, fleas and other 

 forms of life found associated with them in the nests. It is thought 

 by some that their original home was in the nests of bumble-bees, 

 where they fed upon honey and pollen, and that they merely make 

 u'^.e of the mice and shrews as a means of getting from one nest of 



a bumble-bee to another. 

 [18—23402] 



Fig. 133. Line shows natural size. 

 (.'Vfter Sharp.) 



