380 NATURAL HISTORY OF ARTHROPODS. 



The Ceyptophagid^ are beetles of small size, and usually of short, convex form. 

 On account of their minuteness, these beetles attract little popular attention. Some 

 of the species feed on fungi, some live in ants' nests, and others eat plants. Tiie larvae 

 of Cryptoj>hagus cellaris, a European sjiecies, live in the cells of wild bees (Atitho^jhora 

 retusu) upon the excrement of the youna; bee-larvai. ( '. querciiinn, also a European 

 species, lives in the nests of ants in oak trees. Professor A. S. Packard -writes that lie 

 has found the larva? oi Anther ojj/uiff us ocJtraceiis in the nests of liumble-bees (Botnbus) 

 during July and August. It is likely that the species of Anthtro^jlM'jus, which are 

 frequenters of flowers, are carried into bees' nests by the bees themselves, since Perris 

 has observed a £ombus inontanus, to the antenna of which an A. nigricornis firmly 

 clung. The genus Atomaria is made up of extremely small beetles, as its name 

 indicates; these are oval, convex, and pubescent. Several species of ^•iio;««)'j« are 

 myrmecophilous, others are destructive to plants. A. linearis has been known to ruin 

 young beet-]ilants. 



The family Clutjid^e includes a small number of Coleoptera which are remarkable 

 for their excessively flattened, usually elongate form. Their abdomen has five free 

 ventral segments which are equal in length ; the antennte are eleven-jointed and often 

 enlarged apically ; the prothorax is usually narrower than the elytra. The larvie are 

 elongated and depressed ; ,sonie have five ocelli upon each side of the liead, others 

 none. The feet have each a simple claw. The ti]) of the abdomen is armed with a 

 pair of curved horns. . Both larvte and beetles are found beneath the bark of decaying 

 trees; some of them (I^rustoniis) live in society with ants; the larva of one species, at 

 least, is carnivorous. 



The sj)ecies of Brontes have striate elytra, the siiles of the prothorax serrate, and 

 its anterior angles jirolonged, the antenna^ witji the first joint elongated, the anterior 

 coxal cavities open behind, and the maxilla? exposed. B. ilnbius is 

 about 0.25 of an inch long, dark brown in color, and is not rare under 

 bark of dead chestnut trees in the northeastern United States. In 

 Europe B. 2}lanatus is found under bark of dead oaks. 



In the genus (Jacvjus the hind-tarsi are only foui-jointed in the 

 males ; the prosternum is narrow, and the hind-angles of the head are 

 ]irominent. C. clavipes is scarlet alxive, with black antennae and eyes; 

 FIG. «2.-c«™;hs its upper surface is finely punctate. I have found this species under 

 decaying butternut liark, where its larva probably lives. 

 Catoijenus differs from Ciioijus in having its maxillie covered by corneous plates, 

 which are broad and rounded in front; the first tarsal joint is short. C. ruf/ts, wliich 

 varies fronr 0.25 to 0.50 of an inch long, is deep brown, and is found in the eastern 

 United St.ates. In )iarts of Connecticut it is common lieneath the loose bark of tlie 

 t)-unks of hickory trees, and I have reared its larva, which fed upon a puj)a of £la- 

 jihidion purcdkliini, a borer in hickory. 



In tSylvani's the anterior coxal cavities are closed behind, the tarsi without lobes 

 beneath, the outer three joints of the antenna? are enlarged. A', siirijiamensis breeds 

 in grain, and, like most grain insects, has become widely distributed over the globe. 

 It is dark brown, marked with yellowish iniljescencc, and is only about 0.1 of an inch 

 long. 



The family Colydiid.e comprises quite a number of very small, elongate, mostly 

 cylindrical beetles, of little jiopular interest on account of their small size. Some of 

 them live in fungi in the ground, or under bark of trees ; a few are myrmecophilous. 



