1244 FAMILY LV. — TKN1':!?U10NI1).K. 



antenna' arc usually bead-like or rnoniliforni, and the month parts 

 rathei' small aixl n(»t })r()minent. Our six'cios occur For the most 

 part on fun^i oi- hencath bark, bnt in the desert re^'ions ot! the AVest, 

 where the family is riihly rci)i'( scnted, th<'y take the place of the 

 ('aral)ida' and are fonnd on the j^roiiiid, licneatli cover of an^' kind. 



In addition to the Jieneral characters ^uiven above, the Tenebrion- 

 ida^ have the head narrower than thorax; mandibles short, robust 

 and furnished a\ ith a basal tooth ; eyes usually transverse, with their 

 front emarginate; antenna^ inserted under the sides of the head, 11- 

 (very rarely 10-) jointed; front coxjxi short, globose, separated ])y 

 the prosternum, their cavities entirely closed behind; elytra rounded 

 at tip, covering the abdomen, the latter with live ventral segments, 

 the first three more closely connected than the others ; first joint of 

 hind tarsi almost always longer than second; tarsal claws simple. 



The larvje are long and slender, with the body often flattened, 

 somewhat like a wireworm, and of a hard, horn-like texture. Six 

 thoracic legs are i)resent, and in addition, a short prop or pseudopod 

 on the under side of the anal end. They are for the most part 

 scavengers, living in dead or decaying wood and dry vegetable prod- 

 ucts or fungi. Some of them, as the "meal-worm," are injurious, 

 though none attack growing crops. About 10,000 species of Tene- 

 brionida" are kno^^•n, 750 of which are listed from the United States. 

 As already mentioned, the vast majority of these occur only in the 

 Western and Southwestern States, where they often form the most 

 striking feature of the Coleopterous faiuia. In Indiana but one of 

 the three subfamilies into which the family is divided is represented, 

 and this only by 52 known species. The principal paper and the 

 < nly one treating' of the North .\merican species of the family as a 

 whole is by 



Horn. — "Revision of the Tenebrionida' of America," /// Trans. 

 Amer. Phil. Soc. XTV, ISTO, 25;-{-40-t. 



A numbei- of genera have since been treated separately by Horn, 

 Casey and others and the papers will be mentioned under their re- 

 s))e('tive tribal or generic headings. 



Subfamily I. TENEBRIONINAE. 



In this subfamily, to which all the Indiana representatives of the 

 famil,y Itelong, the hind margin of the third and fourth ventral seg- 

 ments is leather-like or coriaceous in texture; the middle coxk are 

 usually provided with a distinct trochaiitin and theii- cavities ex- 

 t(!nd outward to reacli tlie epimei'a. 'I'lie inner wings are more often 



