CHAPTER VII. 



NECROPHAGJ, OR CARRION-EATERS. 



Most of the insects which we have already seeu performing the 

 office of scavengers do that duty merely for their own sakes, 

 devouring, and devouring largely, any decaying animal matter 

 that they may find. We now come to a large group of Beetles 

 which frequent similar substances for a different purpose. It is 

 true that they do feed on the putrefying flesh of any dead 

 animal that they can find, but that is not their chief object in 

 visiting such substances. Their real business is to bury their 

 eggs in it, so that the young may find plenty of food. 



The first family of this important group is called Scydmamidas, 

 from a Greek word signifying " sullen " or " dull-coloured," and 

 the name is given to the insects 

 on account of the dull and 

 dark appearance of most of the 

 species. In our own country, 

 the species, which are about 

 nineteen or twenty in number, 

 are very small, the largest 

 being scarcely the tenth of an 

 inch long. They are all more 

 or less hairy. 



The curious Beetle which 

 forms our example of the 



foreign Scydnirenidse is a native of Ceylon, and, like most of its 

 British relations, is found in moist and marshy places, where 

 there is plenty of decaying vegetable and animal substances. As 

 may be seen by reference to the line above the illustration, which 

 represents the actual length of the Beetle, though not a large 



G 



Fig. 3a.— Ertneus monstrosus. 

 (Black.) 



