CHAPTER XII. 



THE NECROPHAGA, OR CLAYICORNES. 



THIS section comprises groups of very different appear- 

 ance and habits, answering for the most part to the 

 genera Silpha, Dermestes, and Byrrhus of old authors, 

 and including the Philhydrida (Palpicornes of the French 

 entomologists), the aquatic representatives of the Lamel- 

 licornes. Its members (which feed principally upon de- 

 caying animal or vegetable matter) have the antennae 

 clubbed or incrassate at the apex, sometimes elbowed or 

 with a longer basal joint, and inserted near the mandi- 

 bles, which are usually strong ; the inner lobe of the 

 maxilla is not palpiform ; the tarsi are mostly 5-jointed, 

 and the tibiae spurred; the scutellum large, and the 

 elytra nearly always covering the sides of the abdomen 

 (the apical segments of which are often exposed), and 

 occasionally truncate. It may be considered as divided 

 into eighteen families, the Silphida, Scydm&nidcK, Aniso- 

 tomidce, Scaphidiida, Huterida, Nitidulida, Trogositidce, 

 Colydiida, Cucujidte, Crytophagidce, Mycetophagida, 

 Dermestidce, Byrrhida, Heterocerida, Parnidce, Georys- 

 sidce, Hydrophilida, and Sphaeridiidce but it must b,e 

 acknowledged that there is considerable difference of 

 opinion as to the affinities of these insects. 



