THE PSEUDOTRIMERA. 239 



M. vaporariorum is a very rare, small, testaceous, 

 elongate, flat, parallel insect. It has been associated 

 with Lathridius, etc., and is usually found crawling on 

 walls near hot-beds or dung-heaps. 



Aspidiphorus (Coniporus, Thorns.), left with doubt 

 by Redtenbacher and Lacordaire among the Byrrhida, 

 assigned by Erichson to the Ptimdce, and by Latreille to 

 the Dermestida, and latterly erected by Thomson into 

 a family, the Coniporidte, and placed by him in the 

 Xylophagi, between Dorcatoma and Sphindus (the last a 

 genus of uncertain position), still remains unsatisfac- 

 torily placed. Its tarsi are slender and heteromerous 

 (the first joint of the hinder pair being obsolete), with 

 the apical joint almost as long as all the rest; the legs 

 are not retractile; the antennae ten-jointed, the two 

 first joints being swollen, and the club elongate; the 

 clypeus large, and with a distinct suture ; the maxillae 

 with a horny tooth; the prosternum with no projection 

 behind the anterior coxae, but applied against the sloping 

 mesosternum ; the middle and hinder coxae widely dis- 

 tant ; and the abdomen with five segments, of which the 

 . first is much the largest. The only known species, A. 

 orbiculatuSj is very small, convex, delicately pubescent, 

 black, with the legs and antennae (except the club) fer- 

 ruginous, and the elytra punctate striate. It is rare, and 

 found in sandy places, on low plants. 



Sphindus (variously associated with Anobium, Cis, 

 Tetratoma, Crypt ophaff us and Lyctus) has pentamerous 

 tarsi, of which the apical joint is as long as the preceding 

 joints together; its head ending in a small quadrangular 

 rostrum ; and ten-jointed antennae, with a strong three- 

 jointed club. 



S. dubius, very rare in England (where it has occurred 



