182 MODERN CLASSIFICATION OF INSECTS. 



are admirably adapted to their mode of life, reside beneath the bark 

 of trees, one of which (Paromalus picipes), according to Dalman, 

 is parasitically attacked by Pteromalus micans (Sived. Trans. 1822). 

 In their motions, they creep but slowly, but fly well. Cadet de Vaux, 

 in his History of the Mole, observes that, almost as soon as it is dead, 

 it is attacked by a number of Histers, especially the H. seneus, which 

 strip off the fur almost as clean as though it were shaved with a razor. 

 Latreille mentions, that a German author has stated that the larger 

 individuals attack and kill the weaker, and deposit their eggs in their 

 bodies, a statement of great improbability. Some of the more minute 

 species are constantly found as residents in ants' nests (Chevrolat, in 

 8ilh. Rev. Ent. No. 17.). The larvie of such species as have been ob- 

 served (Hister merdarius and cadaverinus) feed, according to Latreille, 

 upon the same substance as the perfect insect. They are linear, de- 

 pressed, and nearly smooth, of a soft consistence, and a dirty white 

 colour, with the exception of the head and first segment of the body, 

 which are covered with a scaly reddish-brown skin, and are longitu- 

 dinally sulcated. They are furnished with six short legs, and the body is 

 terminated by two biarticulated appendages, and an elongated anal tube. 

 PaykuU has, however, given a more dilated account and figure of the 

 larva of H. merdarius {Jig. 17. 24. from PaykuU's Monograph^. The 

 legs are short ; the mandibles robust, and the antennae and palpi 

 short; the abdominal, as well as the two posterior, thoracic segments 

 are of a dirty Avhite, with various waived impressions and hairs dis- 

 posed in transverse rows on each side of the ventral segments ; there 

 is, on the under side, a kind of fleshy tubercle, serving for pro, 

 gression. It is five inches long, and is found in moist cowdung, in 

 the drier parts of which, at the end of the summer, it forms a cell, 

 very smooth within, in which it becomes a pupa, without, how- 

 ever, entirely casting off the skin of the larva ; thus resembling the 

 Anhreni ; the pupa is of a pale brown colour. The same author has 

 also figured another larva, as that of the genus Hololepta ; but Leach 

 (^Enc. Brit. Suppl.) and Latreille have shown that this is erroneous, 

 and that the figure represents the larva of one of the Syrphidse. 



Mr. MacLeay, as above stated, has clearly proved the relation exist- 

 ing between the Histerida^andLucanidee, by a comparative examination 

 of their respective characters, as laid down by Latreille. Their habits, 

 however, and general appearance, remove them to a considerable dis- 

 tance, although Hister (Oxysternus Erich.) maximus approaches such 



