1308 FAMILY LXI. — MORDELLID.Ti;. 



Family LXI. MORDELLIDiE. 



The Tumbling Flower Beetles. 



This family includes a large number of small, wedge-shaped 

 beetles having the body arched, the head bent downward and the 

 abdomen usuall.y prolonged into a style or pointed process. The 

 hind legs are, in most species, very long and stout, fitted for leap- 

 ing; the antenna? long and slender and the thorax is as wide at base 

 as the elytra. The body is densely covered with fine silky hairs, 

 usually black, but often very prettily spotted or banded with yel- 

 low or silvery hues. The adults occur on flowers or on dead trees 

 iind are very active, flying and i unning with great rapidity and in 

 the net or beating umbrella jumping and tumbling about in gro- 

 tesque manner in their efi^orts to escape. The larvae live in old wood 

 or in the pith of plants, and those of some species are said to be 

 carnivorous in habit, feeding upon the young of Lepidoptera and 

 Diptera which they find in the plant stems. The name Mordella, 

 that of the typical genus, is from the Latin mordere or "bite." 



In addition to the characters mentioned the Mordellidas have the 

 maxillary palpi 4-jointed, the last joint variable in form ; head ver- 

 tical and applied closely to the prosternum in repose, suddenly con- 

 stricted immediately behind the eyes; antenna? slender, 11-jointed, 

 inserted at the sides of the front : thorax strongly narrowed in front, 

 its lateral suture distinct ; elytra narrowed behind, not truncate, 

 leaving exposed the tip of the al)domen, the latter with five or six 

 ventral segments; fritnt legs short, hind ones usually long; front 

 coxffi large, conical, contiguous, without trochantins, the cavities 

 open behind ; hind coxa? flat, contiguous, very large in most of our 

 species; hind tarsi long, compressed; tarsal claws either simple or 

 cleft to the 1)ase. with the upper portion coml)-toothed in most 

 species. 



The principal literature treating of the North American forms is 

 as follows: 



LeCo>;ie.— "Synopsis of the Mordellidjp of the United States," 

 in Proc. Phil. Acad. Nat. Sci., XIV, 1862, 43-51. 



Smith, John J?.— "A Synopsis of the Mordellida? of the TTnited 

 States," in Trans. Amer. Entom. Soc, X, 1882, 73-100, Pis. 

 I-III. 



About 120 members of the family are known from North Amer- 

 ica. These are distributed among seven genera, six of which are 

 represented in the State. One of the ]trincipal characters used in 



