THE MALACODERMI. 145 



Tillus elongatus, a narrow black insect with red thorax 

 (the male being rarely entirely black), perforates old 

 wood, and is sometimes found in elder-blossom. 



Clerus formicarius (Plate IX, Fig. 5), a regular Harle- 

 quin, occurs beneath bark ; where its larva, dark pink and 

 spotted in front (figured by Ratzeburg, Forstins. vol. i. 

 p. 35, pi. 1, f. 7 ; and by M. Ferris, Ann. de la Soc. 

 Ent. de Fr., 1854), preys upon other wood- feeding larvae. 

 Opilus is found in old hedges and posts, its soft, pale 

 pink, hairy larva living under the barks of willows, and 

 feeding on the larvae of Anobium, etc. ; and the species 

 of Trichodes (of doubtful British origin), large, hairy, 

 blue, red-banded insects, are parasitic in their earlier 

 stages upon honey and mason-bees, whose larvae they 

 devour. Corynetes and Necrobia, small, flattish, shining, 

 and blue-black, with the thorax or legs red in some in- 

 stances, frequent dry skins, dead carcases, etc. (having 

 even been found in an Egyptian mummy) ; the latter is 

 distinguished by the more elongate apical joint of its 

 palpi, and the larger and flatter club to its antennae. 



The LYMEXYLONID^E (Xylotrogi, Latr.) are very long, 

 narrow, and cylindrical, with the head free from the 

 prothorax, contracted behind, and having a neck; the 

 front and middle coxae close together, large, long, cylin- 

 drical, and not exserted; the posterior pair being oblique; 

 the prosternum not produced into a point behind ; the 

 spurs of the tibiae imperfectly developed or absent ; the 

 legs long and thin, with slender five-jointed tarsi; the 

 labrum small, but distinct ; and the palpi considerably 

 developed in the males. 



Their larvae, which bore neat round drills horizontally 

 into solid timber, are elongate, cylindrical, recurved be- 

 hind, smooth, but with numerous roughnesses on the 



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