554 TIIE STUDY OF INSECTS. 



The family CilD.-E (Ci'i-dae) includes a small number of 

 very small beetles, found under the bark of trees and in the 

 dry and woody species of fungus. The body is cylindrical ; 

 the prothorax is prolonged over the head ; the abdomen has 

 five ventral segments, of which the first is longer than the 

 others; and the tarsi are all four-jointed. 



The family SPHINDID^ (Sphin'di-dae) is represented in 

 North America by only three small species, which are found 

 in dry fungi, which grow on the trunks of trees. Although 

 the antennae are clubbed, and these beetles are commonly 

 regarded as belonging to the Clavicornia, the tarsi are like 

 those of the Heteromera, the fore and middle tarsi being 

 five-jointed and the hind tarsi four-jointed. 



Family LUCANID^E (Lu-can'i-dae). 

 The Stag-beetles. 



The stag-beetles are so called on account of their large 

 mandibles, which in the males of some species are branched 

 like the antlers of a stag. But they are more surely distin- 

 guished by the form of the antennae, which are lamellate; 

 but the plates composing the club are not capable of close 

 apposition, and usually are not flattened. The student should 

 carefully distinguish between this type of antenna and that 

 of the Scarabaeidae, where the terminal segments are greatly 

 flattened and can be brought close together so as to form a 

 compact club. 



The adult beetles are found on the trunks of trees, and 

 are said, by Harris, to live upon sap, for procuring which the 

 brushes of their jaws and lips seem to be designed ; but it 

 seems probable that some species at least feed upon decom- 

 posing wood. They lay their eggs in crevices of the bark of 

 trees, especially near the roots. The larvae that hatch from 

 these eggs resemble the well-known larvae of May-beetles in 

 form. But, unlike the white grubs which feed on the roots 

 of herbaceous plants, the larvae of stag-beetles bore into the 

 solid wood of the trunks and roots of trees, and reduce it to 



