LAND SCAVENGER-BEETLES. 



G5 



color, usually found under the bark of decaying trees. Their antennae 

 are short, bnt reaching back, at most, beyond the middle of the thorax. 

 The club consists of three somewhat mouiliform joints, not conspicuously 

 larger than the preceding ones. The tarsi are apparently four jointed, 

 the first joint being so short that it cannot be seen from above; the last 

 joint is very long, often as long as all the others united. In Trogosita 

 proper, the thorax is separated from the abdomen by a short neck or 

 strangulation. The larva of Trogosita is a whitish ilattened grub, with 

 a pair of black spots on the top of the three first segments. The tail 

 terminates in two horny points. 

 Number of IsT. A. species, forty. 



Family XX. CUCUJID^. 

 The insects of this family are most conspicuously distinguished by 



their very flat bodies and by their projecting 

 mandibles. Antennae usually longer than 

 the head and thorax, filiform, and generally 

 granose or mouiliform. In the small sub- 

 family of Silvanides, the three last joints are 

 moderately enlarged. The tarsi, like those 

 of the preceding family, are apparently four 

 jointed, the first joint being very small. Both 

 c. Sal^ed^f Ld^idr;?^,^^ of these families are classed by LatreiUe with 

 -lteEiS.''^'"^'''^'''''^'^'^''*'*^^'tlie Tetramera. Most of these insects are 

 brown, but some of the Cucuji proper are of a bright red color. They 

 are f6und under the bark of trees, but the larvie, so far as they have 

 been observed, are found to be carnivorous. M. Perris discovered the 

 larviie of Brontes planatus feeding upon Podur*, acari, and the larvie of 

 the wood-boring beetles of the genus Tomicus. And in England, Mr. 

 C. C. Babington and Mr. Westwood saw the Cucujus testaceus in abund- 

 ance in granaries, from which, in connection with the similarity of the 

 larvre, we may conclude that they have the same useful habit as the in- 

 sects of the preceding family in counteracting the ravages of the de- 

 structive grain worms. 

 Number of described K A. species, forty-two. 

 The following is a table of the principal genera : 



A. AutenniB moniliform, not thickened at the tip, half as long as the body, or less ; size, more than 

 one-quarter of an inch in length. 



B. Posterior angles of the head rounded and prominent ; color, scarlet Cucujus. 



B B. Posterior angles of the head not prominent ; color, brown Catogenus. 



A A. Antennre sub-mouiliform, more than half as long as the body, usuaUy a little thickened at the 



tip; size, very small LiEMOPiiLffius. 



AAA. Antennas long and filiform, fl^rst joint elongated ; size, small Bkontes.* 



A A A A. Antenna; with the last three joints forming a loose club ; size, very small Silvanus. 



*This name, given to this genus by Fabricius, is discarded in Mr. Crotch's Check List as having been 

 preoccupied, and Uliota, LatreiUe, substituted. 



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