THE HISTEES. 89 



They frequent similar localities with the Silphas, and indeed are 

 mostly found in company with them. 



The present species has been chosen because it is a very giant 

 among its kin. It is a native of Senegal, and its very appro- 

 priate name is Hister gigas, or the Giant Hister. 



The colour of this insect is black, and, in proper condition, 

 the surface is highly polished. An old specimen, however, is 

 almost invariably dull-black, this effect being produced by 

 innumerable scratches over the whole of its surface, caused by 

 friction against the substance in which it has been burrowing. 

 The jaws are large and curved, and cross each other at the tip 

 when closed. There is a good deal of golden down about their 

 base. 



The thorax is smooth, but finely punctured, and the elytra are 

 also polished, and marked with deep punctures, set in regular 

 lines. The fore-legs, as is the 

 case with burrowing insects in 

 general, have very hard and power- 

 ful tibiae, armed with projecting 

 spikes. The middle legs are 

 thickly haired. Altogether this 

 is a very common insect, and 

 scarcely looks like a Hister. It ,., 



is so bio- and so rounded, that it 



° Fig. 40.— Hister gigas. 



much more resembles one of the (Steci bhukj 



Dor Beetles, more especially as the 



armed fore-legs of both insects are almost identical in shape. 



The last of the Necrophaga which can be mentioned in this 

 work belongs to the family of the Nitidulidse. None of them 

 are large Beetles, and, though they belong to the Necrophaga, 

 many of them are found on flowers, under the bark of trees, and 

 in the nests of hymenopterous insects. Of these last, our own 

 species are mostly found in ants' nests, but that which is here 

 represented inhabits the nest of a wild bee, called Trigona, in- 

 habiting tropical America and New Holland. 



The nest of this bee is very curious. It is not placed within 

 a hollow tree or underground, as are the nests of most social 

 honey-sucking bees, but is hung to the end of a branch, the 

 tough wax being plastered against the boughs so firmly that the 



