FAMILY CLERID.t:. 91 



Clcridse. 



Antenna subclavate, the three or four lust joints being thickened : the head is more or 

 less retractile; and the anlerinr parts, head and thorax, appear elongated, while the 

 ai'domen is short. The tliorax and body are both subrotund ; the last joint but one of the 

 tarsi, bifid. 



The family is composed of small but beautiful insects : they live in wood, and some- 

 times in the dried remains of animals, in which resi)ect they seem to resemble the der- 

 mestidif. Others frequent beehives, and feed upon the larvae of the bee. 



Genus CLERUS (Geoff.). Trichodes (Fab.). 

 ' Tarsi with the basal joints scarcely visible ; labial palpi terminated by a large hatchet- 

 ' shaped joint ; terminal juiut of the antennae acutely produced within' ( Westwood). 



Clerus apiarius. (Plate ii, fig. 8.) 



Color steel-blue, pubescent : elytra vermilion, with three transverse bands of deep violet. 



Genus THANASIMUS (Latr.). 



Antennae gradually clavate : maxillary palpi small ; labial palpi terminated by a hatchet- 

 shaped joint ; basal tarsi joint small. 



Thanasimus dubius ( Latr.). (Plate viii, fig. 7.) 



Color brown and fuscous, pubescent ; madibles a»d eyes black ; head, thorax and base of 



the elytra fuscous. Neck surrounded with a collar : thorax emarginate before, deeply 



grooved transversely behind, and exserted. Elytra fuscous and strongly punctured at 



base, banded with rufous white and dark brown or black ; thighs fuscous ; tibia and 



first joints of the tarsi dark brown. 



One-third of the basiil portion of the elytra is pubescent ; the remainder, or Iianded 



portion, is clothed with close-pressed short hairs : on the undulating whitish bands, the 



hair is dirty white. Length one-fourth of an inch. 



This species of Thaiiasimus is found upon the pine, both in the living and decayed state 

 of the tree. 



The larva of one of the English species of Clekus, C. apiarius, is loimd in beehives and 

 is highly injurious to the cunununity, as it feeds upon the grubs of the bees. It is an 

 European insect, and is not known in this country ; but as other members of the family 

 may have the same habits, it is important that they should be found out. 



