BEETLES. 



385 



latter has the siilt's (if the prothorax light reil. As was noticed by Frisfh, in 1740, in 

 describing the larva of the European aS. obscura, these larvre are sometimes phyto- 

 phagoiis, and in the last few years numerous notices have been published of injury to 

 crojjs, especially to young sugar-beets, by larvae and imagos of the last- 

 mentioned species and of .S'. opaca and <S'. reticuhita. Late experiinenis 

 have shown that some of these species jirefer vegetalde to animal food. 

 Sexual activity is great in Sllpha ; and Dr. C F. (xissler has written 

 of S. ramosd, a sjiecies from the western United States: "They copu- 

 late every few hours, the male constantly pursues and annoys the female, r i 

 often snapping at the latter and biting into tips of elytra, for which 

 reason these (in collections) are so often found lacerated. The female / 

 is often found burrowed into the soil to escape the caressings of the F"- ws- — -S'i'iJAa 

 male, and also for oviposition, which takes place there." The oval 

 eggs of this species, as Dr. Gissler has observed, are very large in comjiarison with 

 the insects' size, measuring about 0.1 of an inch in length, while the beetle is only 

 from 0.6 to 0.7 of an inch long. 'I'lie larva' of jSilpha are dark colored and flat, having 

 the characters already given for larva- of this family. 



The species of N^'cnqjhorus have ten-jointed anteima^ with a four-jointed round 

 club, and are of an ehjiigated form, with red-s])otted elytra, which are truncated at 

 their tips. On account of their habit of burying small dead vertebrate animals, in 



i<'i( 



. 4r»7. — Xecvnpkoriis ve^pillio, grave-tiigger.s at worlt. 



which they lay their eggs, these beetles are often called sextons or gTavc-diggers. This 

 habit makes tliese beetles useful scavengers. The largest North American species of 

 this genus is JV. americanus. It is 1.25 to 1.50 inclies long, the top of the head is 

 red, the pronotum is of the same color margined laterally and behind with black, and 

 there are two red spots on the outer side of each elytron, one just anterior to its 

 middle and one near its tip. iV. tomeniosus is a common species in the northeastern 

 Fnited States, and is about 0.75 of an inch long. Its prothorax is clothed with dense 

 yellow pubescences, and the red spots extend nearly across the elytra. Somewhat 

 resembling the last-mentioned species is JV. vespillio from Europe. JST. germanicus, a 

 nearly black Eui-opean species a little over an inch long, captures and devours Geo- 

 fnipes stercorarius. 



The ScYDM.EXiD^ differs from the Silphida> in having coarsely gi'anulated eyes. 



VOL. II. — 25 



