THE NECROPHAGA, OR CLAVICORNES. 105 



short spines on the last segment, which has also a fleshy 

 protuberance on the under side. The dry cast skins of 

 this larva may often be seen. 



The BYRRHID^E are conspicuous from their faculty 

 of packing up their limbs ; the head (except in Noso- 

 dendron) being retractile, and immersed in the thorax, 

 against the sides of which the antennae are placed ; the 

 tarsi are received into the tibiae, which, again, pack tight 

 to the femora, the entire legs fitting into excavations on 

 the lower side of the body. The antennae have eleven 

 joints, except in Limnichus, which has only ten ; the 

 parts of the mouth are not prominent, the ligula having 

 no paraglossse, and the maxillae not being toothed. The 

 species are usually oval and very convex, clothed with 

 short silky pubescence, and sometimes apterous. The 

 Byrrhi (B. fasciatus, Plate VII, Fig. 3) are not uncom- 

 mon in sandy places, etc., in the spring : the other genera 

 are principally found in moss, and under stones on sandy 

 banks. 



They simulate death readily, and are hard to set, 

 owing to their retractile limbs. 



The HETEROCERID^E, comprising a single genus, Hete- 

 rocerus, have the antennae short, the last seven joints 

 forming a flattened club; the parts of the mouth 

 not hidden, the ligula being very projecting ; the legs 

 adapted for digging, with four simple joints to the tarsi ; 

 and the elytra covering the abdomen, which has five 

 segments, the apical one only being free. The species 

 are all depressed, broad, and clothed with short thick 

 silky pubescence, which probably keeps the water near 

 which they live away from their body. Their head is 

 very robust, and the prothorax capable of considerable 

 freedom of motion. They live in mud-banks, etc., at the 



