160 BRITISH BEETLES. 



resembles that of Tenebrio, and has spines on the apical 

 segment) feeds on rotten wood. H. striatus, by far 

 the most common, is abundant in woods, etc., in tufts 

 of grass at the roots of trees, under bark, in rotten wood, 

 moss, etc. ; its larva is the only one of the genus which 

 has been noticed to possess ocelli. Another species, 

 H. pallidus, (Plate X, Fig. 3,) is found at the roots of 

 grass, etc., in sandy places on the south coast (Southend, 

 etc.), often much below the surface. In all these the 

 males are not so robust as the females, with longer 

 antennae, and the basal joints of the front and middle 

 tarsi more dilated. 



The CISTELID^E have the claws of the tarsi pectinated 

 on the under side; the mentum supported by a neck; 

 the apical point of the maxillary palpi very large ; the 

 mandibles with a projection on the inside of the base ; 

 the labrum distinct ; distinct intermediate trochantina; 

 long legs, slender tibiae, which are evidently spurred at 

 the apex ; and the penultimate joint of the tarsi often 

 apparently bilobed. Their eyes are kidney-shaped, and 

 always entirely free, not being encroached upon by the 

 front angles of the thorax ; and are larger in the males 

 than in the females; in the former sex the antennae, 

 also, being always the longest. 



Their larvae are very slender, more or less cylindrical, 

 and having the apical segment hollowed beneath and 

 furnished with a kind of plate, directed backwards, and 

 ending in two slender appendages : they are found in 

 rotten wood. 



Five of our seven species occur in flowers or on 

 bushes, etc., in the hot sunshine; one of the others, 

 Mycetochares bipustulata, a small, very agile insect, 

 black, with a yellow shoulder-spot to the elytra, lives 



