74 THE ORDER OF COLEOPTEEA. 



SuT)-famUy TACHTPORIDES. 



In addition to the characters given in the table, we may add that the 

 tibisB are strongly beset with spines, which distinguishes them not only 

 from the Aleocharides but from nearly all the species in the other sub- 

 families except the Oxytelides. The abdomen also is often bordered 

 and terminated with divergent spines. The antennae are inserted under 

 the sides of the face, behind the mandibles, and are generally slightly 

 thickened towards the tip. They are considerably numerous, fifty-seven 

 N. A. species having been described. A few of them are of medium 

 size, but the great majority are considerably less than a quarter of an 

 inch in length. They are usually shining black, with the elytra often 

 tinted with dark red, rarely inclining to yellow, but this is a style of 

 coloration which is very i>revalent in the whole family of Staphyliuidie. 

 It has been observed that the species of this sub-family never turn their 

 abdomens upwards, as is so generally done by the Aleocharides and 

 some other Staphyliuidie. They inhabit fungi, boleti, dung and other 

 decayed matter. Some are found under dead bark. The following 

 table exhibits the principal genera into which this group has been di- 

 vided : 



A. AnteDiiff; eleven jointed ; tarsi five jointed ; size various. 

 B. Elytra longer than the thorax, miuutelj' and irregularly punctured. 

 C. Abdomen -with a narrow margin ; surface glabrous. 

 D. Body oblong, somewhat depressed, moderately tapering, maxillary palpi filiform ; length 



from one-eighth to more than a quarter of an inch Tachinus. 



D D. Body short, convex, abruptly tapering; maxillary palpi sometimes swollen, subixlate or 



pointed at the end; length less than an eighth of an inch Tachypouus. 



C C. Abdomen without a margin ; surface finely pubescent, form conical, size small . ..Conosoma. 

 B B. Elytra about as long as thorax ; smooth or with three rows of punctures. 



E. Maxillarj- palpi filiform ; length from an eighth to more than a third of an inch : 



BOLETOBIUS. 



E E. Maxillary palpi swollen, subulate at tip, size small MiCETOroitus. 



A A. Antennae ten jointed; tarsi four jointed ; size extremely small Hypocyptus 



TacMmis, Grav., meaning stcift, and Boletohius, Leach, meaning liv- 

 ing in hoJeti, contain, as ^seeu by the table, all the larger species, but 

 they vary much in size. Conosoma^ Kraatz, contains but three species, 

 about a tenth of an inch or a little more in length. They resemble 

 Tachyporus in the convex conical shape of the body, but they are finely 

 pubescent or silky on the surface, and the abdomen is rounded at the 

 sides, without the narrow sharj) margin which is common to all the 

 other genera. Myceto2)ot'us, Mann, is very closely allied to Boletobius, 

 but the species are usually smaller, and more linear in their form. The 

 names of the two genera mean essentially the same thing. Hypocyptus, 

 Schup., contains the smallest species iu the family of Staphyliuidte, and 

 some of the smallest in the order of Ooleoptera, or in the class of insects, 

 being about the twenty -fifth of an inch in length, and some of them not 

 more than a fiftieth. The generic name is derived from the Greek hiipo — 



