'72 Psyche [June 



their visits are chiefly for pollen, and they are not infrequently 

 found on pollen flowers, as Rosa, Anemone, and Thalictriim poly- 

 gamum. The genera which are anthophilous are usually those 

 which contain very common species, as Anthrenus and Attagenus. 

 Comstock says of the carpet beetle {Anthrenus scrophidaricc) that 

 in its adult stage it feeds on the pollen of flowers, and sometimes 

 abounds on the blossoms of currant, cherry and other fruits.' 

 The little white larvoe of Byturus unicolor infest the fruit of the 

 raspberry, and the small, pale brown beetles often visit the flowers. 

 Cryptorhopalum is common on the blossoms of Cornus, Viburnum, 

 Spiraea and Solidago; but most of the genera may live indefinitely 

 without making flower visits. 



The Nitidulidae are called sap-feeders since they may be found in 

 great numbers in spring at sap flowing from the trunks of trees; 

 but many species live in fungi, or devour dry animal and vegetable 

 matter, and the larvse of a few genera, as Ips and Carpophilus, are 

 carnivorous so that the family constitutes a transition group. The 

 mature beetles readily feed on nectar or the juices of fruits, and as 

 they are of small size are able to creep into tubular corollas; but 

 usually they are taken on flowers with visible nectar. Of the five 

 genera which appear in the New England list, Carpophilus, Cercus, 

 and Epuraea are the more important. In Europe Knuth enu- 

 merates more than 150 flowers which are visited by Meligethes, 

 this being one of the few genera the larvae of which live on flower 

 food.- The Nitidulidae also visit pollen flowers, as Rosa, Sam- 

 bucus. Anemone and Papaver. 



The familiar fireflies, or Lampyridse, are carnivorous both in the 

 larval and adult stages; the larvae live chiefly on the ground, but 

 the mature beetles may generally be found on the stems, under the 

 bark, or on the foliage of trees, shrubs, and herbage. As in the 

 Carabidae many genera are nightflyers, which lessens the prob- 

 ability of their becoming anthophilous; but the species are more 

 common on foliage than the ground beetles and are consequently 

 more frequently taken on flowers. The New England list contains 

 18 species as against 15 recorded by Knuth for Europe and the 

 Arctic regions. The genera Lucidota, Ellychnia and Podabrus 



1 Comstock, J. H., "Manual of Insects," p. 540. 



2 Knuth, Paul, ''Handbook of Flower Pollination," translated by J. R. Ainsworth Davia, 

 Vol. 1, v). 185. 



