THE "SKIPJACKS" AND THEIR ALLIES. 133 



prises some flattish shining black insects with blood-red 

 elytra, and one species, E. sanguinolentus (Plate IX, 

 Fig. 1) having also a black mark on the suture ; it oc- 

 curs at the roots of heath on Wimbledon Common, 

 where it has also been taken copiously on the blossom 

 of the nettle. 



They frequent grassy places, flowers, and the leaves of 

 trees ; some also being found in rotten wood, or under 

 stones on river banks. 



Their larvae are very like the common " meal-worm/' 

 being horny, slender, and elongate ; usually almost cy- 

 lindrical, but sometimes more or less depressed. They 

 have no eyes or labrum ; the maxillae and mentum are 

 elongate and soldered together, with palpi which have 

 respectively three and two joints ; the antennae are four- 

 fointed and short ; the legs very short, robust, close toge- 

 ther, and three-jointed ; and the apical segment usually 

 larger and more horny than the rest, frequently with 

 toothed projections, and possessing an anal prolongation. 

 They are found at the roots of plants (the common 

 " wire-worm " being only too well known), or in the black 

 rotten wood -mould of old trees, under bark, etc. ; and 

 have frequently been known to destroy other subcortical 

 larvae, not even sparing those of their own species. 



One of our most abundant "skipjacks" is Athous 

 h&morrhoidalis , a long chestnut-brown beetle with a 

 lighter-coloured abdomen, found in profusion on fern 

 and young hazel in the spring. Ludius ferrugineus, a 

 very rare, broad, flat, dull-red species (called " the rusty 

 gun-barrel" by one of our best working collectors), is 

 the largest we possess; the little Cryptohypni, found 

 under stones on banks, being the smallest. The members 

 of the latter genus appear to be gregarious : I have seen 



