288 MODERN CLASSIFICATION OF INSECTS. 



These insects are found in the spring and early summer months ; 

 they are generally gaily coloured and active in their flight, although 

 they walk but awkwardly ; they frequent leaves and flowers, but the 

 larvffi are found under the bark of trees and in rotten wood. I ob- 

 tained the larvae of P. rubens, from a rotten willow in Horningsea 

 Fen, during the trip of the British Association at the meeting held at 

 Cambridge. I have also found the pupa of the same insect in rotten 

 willows at Battersea, in the middle of April, and which, in a week, 

 assumed the imago state ; the pupa was of a dirty white colour, and 

 the rudimental wings and wing-covers were short, so that I at first 

 thought it was the pupa of one of the Staphylinidae ; the larva 

 (Jig. S2.ll.) is long, linear, and depressed, especially the head and 

 thoracic segments, which are more scaly than the following joints ; 

 the antennae are shorter than the head, and ^-jointed ; the segments 

 of the body are transverse, rounded at the sides, with deep incisions 

 at the articulations; the 11th segment is very short; the 12th large, 

 square, and more horny than the preceding; as is also the 13th or 

 terminal segment, which is broader than the preceding, and armed 

 with two sharp spines directed upwards (Jig. 32.12.). This segment 

 is furnished on the underside with an anal pro-leg ; the six thoracic 

 legs are rather short, very thick, and inserted at the sides of the seg- 

 ments ; the colour of this larva is dirty ochre, with the head and tail 

 somewhat darker. Ahrens has described and figured (in an indifferent 

 manner) the larva and pupa of P3"r. coccinea in the 6th number of 

 Silbermanns Revue Entomologique (p. 14.) ; they are found under the 

 bark of birch, and in the trunks of decaying oaks. He is inclined to 

 believe that the larvae are three years in arriving at their full size ; the 

 pupa state continues fourteen days. 



The family is of difficult location, as may be observed from the 

 numerous situations in which it has been placed at various times by 

 Latreille. With Calopus and Scraptia it certainly appears to have a 

 near relation, but with Ripiphorus and Mordella, a very slight one. Mr. 

 Curtis remarks that the trophi of Pyrochroa are most like those of 

 Sitaris ; but nothing can be more distinct than the habits and economy 

 of these two groups. In the latter respect, as well as in the general 

 habits, Pyrochroa makes a much nearer approach to Pytho {Jig. 32. 

 13. Pytho depressus), which is placed by Latreille amongst the He- 

 lopidae, and by Solier between Lagria and Salpingus ; but which, 

 from the preceding considerations, I would introduce into the present 



