2 4 3 



COLEOPTERA 



CHAP. 



West Australia. 



Mngi. 



in an equally perfect manner, so that no roughness or chink 

 remains, and the creature looks like a little hard seed. Anobium 

 striatum is a common Insect in houses, and makes little round 

 holes in furniture, which is then said to be " worm-eaten." A. 

 (Xestobiuni) tessellatum, a much larger Insect, has proved very 

 destructive to beams in churches, libraries, etc. These species 



are the "death-watches" or "greater 

 death-watches " that have been associated 

 with the most ridiculous superstitions 

 (as we have mentioned in Volume V., 

 when speaking of the lesser death- 

 watches, or Psocidae). The ticking of 

 these Insects is really connected with sex, 

 and is made by striking the head rapidly 

 against the wood on which the Insect 

 is standing. 



_ The very _ anomalous genus Ectrephes 



(After (Fig. 128) IS found ill ants' nests ill 



Australia, AVestwood placed it in Pti- 

 nidae. Wasmann has recently treated it as a distinct family, 

 Ectrephiclae, associating it with Polyplocotes and Diplocotes, and 

 treating them as allied to Scydmaenidae. 



Fam. 54. Malacodermidae. Seven (or even eight} visible ven- 

 tral segments, the lasal one not co-adapted inform v:ith the coxae : 

 tarsi Jive-jointed. Integument softer than usual, the ^tarts of the 

 l>ody not accurately co-a<J<rj>//. This important family includes 

 a variety of forms : viz. Lycides, Drilides, Lampyrides, Telepho- 

 rides ; though they are very different in appearance, classifiers 

 have not yet agreed on separating them as families. Of these 

 the Lampyrides, or glow-worms, are of special interest, as most 

 of their members give off a phosphorescent light when alive ; in 

 many of them the female is apterous and like a larva, and then 

 the light it gives is usually conspicuous, frequently much more 

 so than that of its mate ; in other cases the males are the most 

 brilliant. The exact importance of these characters in the crea- 

 tures' lives is not yet clear, but it appears probable that in the 

 first class of cases the light of the female serves as an attraction 

 to the male, while in the second class the very brilliant lights of 

 the male serve as an amusement, or as an incitement to rivalry 

 amongst the individuals of this sex. The well-known fire-Hies 



