THE BEETLES 



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cylindrical head is entirely devoid of eyes. The best-known species, C. testaceus, 

 is in Britain met with chiefly in the nests of the common yellow ant (Lasius flavus*) , 

 though on the Continent it is found also in the nests of other species. It is about a 

 tenth of an inch long, yellowish brown in color, wingless, with the elytra fused 

 together, and with a deep impression on the base of the abdomen. The relation 

 between the ants and their guests is of a most interesting character. Whenever an 

 ant meets one of these guests in a gallery of the nest, it gently touches and caresses 

 it with its antennae, and while the beetle responds in a similar manner, 

 the ant sucks at the tufts of hair near the end of the beetle's elytra, 

 and then licks the whole anterior surface of the back of its abdomen. 

 The ants feed the beetles in very much the same way as they feed their larvae. 

 When the beetle is hungry it expresses its desire to be fed by licking an ant near 

 the mouth, and occasion- 

 ally stroking the sides of 

 its head with gentle 

 movements of its 

 antennae. During the 

 process of feeding the 

 beetle is passive; the ant 

 moves its head gently to 

 and fro, while the head 

 of the beetle rests almost 

 motionless in its mouth. Claviger testaceus, caressed by ants. (Greatly enlarged.) 



The attention bestowed 



by the ants on the beetles is as great as that which they give to their own larvae, 

 and they frequently feed the hungry ones among them, before looking after the 

 wants of their own brood. 



The orange-banded burying beetles of the genus Necrophorus are probably the 

 best-known members of the Silphidce, though they are not to be considered the 

 most representative, either in habits, size, or general appearance. The many genera 

 of which the family is composed differ greatly in size and outward form, while the 

 burying instinct is almost entirely confined to the genus Necrophorus. In nearly all 

 cases, however, the antennae, consisting usually of eleven joints, are thickened 

 toward the tip or furnished with a distinct club; the prothorax is usually broad 

 and flat, with sharply-defined lateral margins, while the elytra frequently do not 

 reach to the tip of the abdomen; the coxas of the four anterior legs are large, prom- 

 inent, and conical in shape; and the tarsi are usually five jointed, though 

 occasionally with a less number of joints. The carrion beetles are widely 

 distributed, though chiefly characteristic of the colder and temperate zones. 

 In the genus Necrophorus the antennas terminate in an almost globular, four- 

 jointed mass; the body is broadest across the ends of the elytra, which are abruptly 

 truncated, leaving the tip of the abdomen exposed. The species of this genus are 

 black in color, but in most of them the elytra are crossed by two broad orange bands. 

 They feed upon dead animals of all kinds, and their habit of burying the smaller 

 carcasses, such as those of mice, moles, small birds, etc. , has gained for them the 



