48 ANNULOSA JAVANICA. 
received it as, he says, an uninvited guest in a collection of insects from the East-Indies. Fabri- 
cius says of his Trogosita ferruginea “ Habitat in India utraque destruens animalia in Museis 
asservata, panem, aliaque.”” The name of Xylophagi given to this groupe of insects by Latreille, 
seems indeed to be one of the most inappropriate that he could have chosen, since I do not know 
that there is any ascertained instance of a species devouring wood. He grouped them, 
however, with the Bostrichide, to which they have little or no immediate affinity, and which 
are true Xylophagi. Many of the present insects indeed are to be found under bark, but 
this residence may be owing to their taste for the fungi and dead animal matter which 
usually abound in such situations. Those with the habits of which we are acquainted 
devour fruits, corn, and decayed animal matters. Thus the celebrated Degeer ascertained 
that his Tenebrion du lard, which is a species of Latridius, in its larva state devours bacon. 
The figure and description of this larva proves satisfactorily that these insects are properly placed 
among the Necrophaga and near the Dermestide. 'There appears moreover to be a strong rela- 
tion of analogy between the form of Latridius and certain species of the contiguous stirps of PA7/- 
hydrida, such as for instance the Zydrene among the Elophoride. 
The Tribolium castaneum is often to be found in collections as an English insect, but is only, 
as I suspect, a visitor of our island. 
Fam. 5. DERMESTID/E. 
That this family was in the opinion of Linnzus closely connected with the last, sufficiently 
appears from the following sentence in his Biga Insectorum, ‘* Unde patet genera insectorum 
nova admodum esse rara, nisi ante cognita quispiam vellet separata ut Hydroum a Dytiscis, 
Ipsidem a Dermestibus.”’ In several genera of the last family the mandibles are short and thick, 
concealed under the clypeus, and in these insects the mandibles are always of this construction. 
Herbst has given an excellent magnified figure of the larva of the common Dermestes and 
this figure sufficiently proves that we are here at the very extremity of Chilopodiform larve. 
It is indeed from this family that we proceed to the neighbouring tribe of Chilognathiform 
larvee. 
Genus DERMESTES. Lin. 
93. Vuxprnus. D. niger subtus albidus capite thoracisque lateribus cinereo-villosis, scutello testaceo-villoso, 
elytris submurinis. 
Dermestes vulpinus. Fab. Syst. Eleuth. 1. 314, 12. 
Long. corp. 4: 
Oss. This destructive insect appears to be very generally dispersed over the old world. It is at 
least too common in France, the whole of the south of Europe, Africa, and India, In my 
father’s collection there is also one marked as from Cayenne. The ubiquity, however, of such 
insects as these which inhabit skins, &c. may be owing to their attendance on man. 
Genus CHELONARIUM. Fab. 
94. Vittosum, C .nigropiceum nitidum subpunctatum, elytris substriatis, tarsis rufescentibus, antennarum 
articulis ultimis pallidis. 
Long. corp. 4. 
Insectum totum villo denso cinereo obtectum. 
Oss. 
