COLEOPTERA. NITIDULIDiE. 141 



species are found in great profusion in flowers, especially those of the 

 white thorn ; these last are frequently of metallic colours. The body 

 is generally broad, oval, and more or less depressed, having the lateral 

 margins strongly elevated {fig. 10.15. Nitidula grisea) ; the man- 

 dibles are elongate, and bifid or notched at the tips {Jig. 10. 17.); the 

 palpi arc filiform, and never thickened at the extremity {fig. 10, 18. 

 maxilla, and 10. 19. labium with their palpi); the club of the antennae 

 is abrupt, short, and composed of two or three joints {Jig. 10. IG.), the 

 last of which is sometimes (as in Strongylus) terminated by a kind of 

 wart ; the thorax is transverse, and emarginate in front to receive 

 the head; the anterior tarsi {jig. 10. 20.) have the three basal joints 

 in general dilated and occasionally bifid ; and the elytra in some of the 

 genera are truncate, and do not entirely cover the abdomen. The 

 greater portion of these insects are inhabitants of our own country : 

 they are of small size, none exceeding a quarter of an inch in length, 

 and of obscure colours ; those, however, which are found under bark 

 exhibit various markings of pale colour. 



The larva; of these insects, so far as known, considerably resemble 

 those of the typical Silphidaj. In the first volume of the Linnccan 

 Transactions, Mr. William Curtis published an account of Nitidula 

 grisea (recently introduced into the Arboretum Britannicum of Mr. 

 Loudon, p. 1479.), which inhabits willow trees, feeding upon the moist 

 and fermenting sawdust-like substance occasioned by the ravages of 

 the Rhynchaenus lapathi. The larvae are somewhat depressed, of a 

 dirty white colour, with six scaly legs; and the extremity of the body 

 is also furnished with four small horny conical appendages curved 

 upwards ; each segment is also beset with several short stiff hairs, and 

 the lateral margins of the abdominal segments are furnished with a 

 small fleshy somewhat conical protuberance ; the under side of the 

 extremity of the body is also provided with an appendage which is 

 employed as an additional leg. It is in similar situations that I have 

 met with this larva which I have represented in Jig. 11. l. ; Mr. 

 Curtis's figure not giving a correct idea of the form of the head. The 

 pupae are to be found beneath the surface of the ground amongst the 

 moist earth and sawdust, as well as the perfect insects, which are also 

 to be observed in the crevices of the bark. 



M. Bouchc {Naturg. der Insekt. p. 188.) has described the larva 

 of Nitidula obsoleta as being of a linear and flattened form, with a 

 round head ; short 4-jointed antenna: ; and with a pair of diverging 



