LAND SCAVENGER-BEETLES. 



57 



Family VII. SILPHID^. 



This family is founded upon the genus Silplia., a name originally given 

 by the Greeks to some kind of foetid beetle, and appropriated by Liu- 

 iia3us to the leading genus of the present family. These insects are 

 [Fig- 18.] most readily distinguished from 



the other Necrophaga by their 

 large size. The species of Silplia 

 are usually half an inch and up- 

 wards iu length, whilst some of 

 the burying beetles, composing 

 the genus IsTecrophorus, are an 

 inch and a half. The other lead- 

 ing characters are the orbicular 



SlLPHA IN J5QUALieFai.:—ff, larva; rf, same uatural or rOUUdcd thoraX, VCrV tlliu all 

 size ; /, g, h, matmible, labium, aud maxilla ot lar- ' 



va; t,i, analproces.sau(lautenna|'ofsame; 7Ji one arOUUd at the margin, and Slightly 

 ot the lateral processes more nimbly maKniflecl ; 6, o ? o »; 



pupa ; e, same, natural size ; I, anal process of overlapping the baSC Of the Cly- 

 sanie ; c, beetle ; k, anterior tarsus of same — after j. i. o 



Eiiey. tra. The club of the antennae is 



perfoliate and 4 or 5-joiuted. The hind trochanters are also prom- 

 inent, especially in Kecrophorus ; but they are not swolen or sub-globu- 

 lar, as they are in the land predaceous beetles. The Silphfe, in com- 

 pany with their larva?, are found on dead and putftd animals.* The 

 Necrophori have the curious instinct to deposit their eggs in small dead 

 animals or fragments of putrid flesh, and then bury them in the ground 

 several inches, and sometimes nearly a foot in depth. Thelarvie hatch- 

 ing from these eggs feed upon the decayed flesh, and, it is said, devour 

 even the bones of small animals. 



There is a small group of dusky or blackish beetles belonging to the 

 genera Catops and Colon, which are less than a quarter of an inch in 

 length, which are usually classed with the Silphidjie, and consequently 

 form an exception to the majority of the family with respect to size. 



Fifty-five North American species have been described. 



The three leading or typical genera may be thus described : 



A. AntennEB capitate ; head large and free. Large thick bodied insects ; color black, elytra spotted 



with reddish-yellow N^ceophorus. 



A A. Antenna clavate and perfoliate ; head small ; size medium ; body broad and Hatteued ; 



color black ; thorax iu many margined with yellow SlU'llA. 



AAA. Antenna} sub-clavate ; head partly immersed in the thorax ; size small ; form ovate ; color 

 black or brown Catops. 



* A remarkable exception to the usual habits of this family, occurs in the case of a small European 

 species, (Sil^jha opaoa, Linn!) the larvas ef which have been known to feed, to an injurious extent, upon 

 the leaves of the beet and the mangel-wurzel. Cuitis' Farm Insects, p. 388. 



