LAND SCAVENGER-BEETLES. 01 



lineu and cottou fabrics. They are sometimes quite iujurious to carpets 

 whilst lying upon the floor. We have knowu them to select a particu- 

 lar stripe, especially one of red flannel, in the domestic fabric known 

 as rag-carpet, and follow it out into the middle of the room, gnawing it 

 ofl' at intervals. They have to be treated upon general principles, no 

 "specific remedy, we believe, having been discovered. Some very small 

 species, belonging to the genus Anthrenus, are very destructive to cab- 

 inets of natural history. Other small species are found on flowers. 



Family XII. MYCETOPHAGID^. 



Founded upon the genus Ilycetophagus, a word which means a mush- 

 roomeater, and therefore indicates the habits of the family. They are 

 fPig. 24.] small, or very small, oval, moderately convex, 



pubescent, and usually prettily marked in- 

 sects. This is one of the families of small 

 Coleopterous insects in which the number of 

 tarsal joints is very variable, not unfrequently 

 MYCETOPHAGus:-!, beetle; 2, an- difleriijg in the sexes of the same specdes. 

 n'.r/?) f'4;same"of*?en?r (0 f The Only preceding family with which it is 



5^ posterior tarsus-atter West- jj^^^lg ^q 1,q COnfOUndcd, is that of the Nitldu- 



lidic ; but it differs : first, in the antennic, which are knobbed in :N"itidu- 

 lidte, and usually gradually clavate in the Mycetophagidie; second, in 

 the elytra, which cover the whole abdomen in the latter, and are almost 

 always truncated, though often but very slightly in the former ; and 

 thirdly, in the character of the pubescence or dowu upon the surface, 

 which is scarcely perceptible or wanting in the former, whereas the 

 Mycetophagidai are densely clothed with prostrate hairs. They are 

 also more uniformly and conspicuously spotted than the Nitidulid.e, the 

 elytra usually exhibiting yellow spots or bands on a brown or blackish 

 ground. 



Our largest species is the M. pimctatns, Say, upwards of two-tenths 

 of an inch in length, blackish ; elytra reddish-yellow, with a large black 

 spot including the scutellum, another at the side, and another near but 

 not including the tip. 



M.flexuosus, Say, is three-twentieths of an inch in length, blackish; 

 elytra redish-yellow ; a large transverse black spot on the region of the 

 scutellum ; a small rouuded one on the shoulder; a large irregular one 

 on the side, sometimes extending to the suture, and a large black spot 

 on the tip, enclosing a small fulvous spot. 



About twenty N. A. species are known. 



