180 



THE ORDER OF COLEOPTERA. 



The following table gives the principal distinctive characters of the 

 two families of this tribe : 



A. Tarsi apparently 4-joiiited, sometimes S-jointed ; antenniB usually shorter than 



the head and thorax, and with a club of from three to six joints ; maxillary 



palpi usually terminated by a wide securiform joint. Thorax convex : 



Erotylid.^. 



A A. Tarsi apparently 3-jointed, sometimes 4-jointed. Antennse usually as long as 



the head and thorax, or longer, with the two or three terminal joints slightly 



enlarged ; maxillary palpi nearly cylindrical, labials sometimes enlarged at 



the end. Thorax usually with three depressions at the base, and with a 



wide lateral margin Endomychid^. 



Family LXII. EROTYLID^. 



. This is a family of moderate extent founded upon the genus Erotylus, 

 of Fabricius, a term borrowed directly from the Greek, and meaning 

 friendly or pleasing — probably in allusion to the contrasted colors of 

 many of the sjjecies. They are of moderate or small size, only a few 

 species of Dacne and Erotylus proper attaining to half an inch in 

 length, whilst the great majority are less than a quarter. The most 

 common coloration is a red thorax with black, or black and red elytra, 

 or the reverse ; but some species are unicolorous. 



[Fig. 90.J 



Cyphehotylus Boisduvali, Chev.:— a, b, larva, side and back views; c, d, pupa, under and upper 

 sides r e, beetle, natural size ; i, antenna; j, palpus; g, tarsus from below ; h, terminal joint of 

 same from above — after Riley. 



The leading characters have been given in the preceding table and in 

 the general description of the tribe. We will only repeat here that the 

 two principal characters by which they are distinguished from other 

 fungus-eating beetles are their widened tarsi, covered beneath with a 

 dense brush of hair-like papillae, with the last joint but one usually 

 bilobed, and the form of the terminal joint of the maxillary j)alpi — 

 which with a few exceptions is broadly triangular, whilst the pentame- 

 rous and heteromerous fungivorous beetles have slender tarsi, at most 

 loosely haired on the under side, and the paljji of the same width 

 throughout, or, in some of the Diaperidte, a little widened at the end. 

 These insects usually inhabit the fungi which grow upon trees, but we 

 have found several species of Languria uj)on flowers, especially the 

 umbellifera. 



