254 



COLEOPTERA 



CHAP. 



by Diptera. Some of the species of Necrdbia have been spread 

 by commercial intercourse, and N. rufipes appears to be now one 

 of the most cosmopolitan of Insects. The beautifully coloured 

 Corynetes coeruleus is often found in our houses, and is useful, as 

 it destroys the death-watches (Anobiurn) that are sometimes very 

 injurious. Trichodes apiarius, a very lively -coloured red and 

 blue beetle, destroys the larvae of the honey-bee, and Lampert 



lias reared Trichodes alvearius 

 from the nests of Chalicodoina 

 muraria, a mason-bee ; he re- 

 cords that one of its larvae, 

 after being full grown, remained 

 twenty - two months quiescent 

 and then transformed to a pupa. 

 Still more remarkable is a case 

 of fasting of the larva of Tri- 

 chodes ammios recorded by 

 Mayet; 1 this Insect, in its 



J 



P 



B, front leg ; 



C, termination of the body, more mag- immature form, destroys Acri- 



. f, * ** 



dium maroccanum ; a larva sent 



from Algeria to M. Mayet refused such food as was offered to 

 it for a period of two and a half years, and then accepted 

 mutton and beef as food ; after being fed for about a year and a 

 half thereon, it died. Some Cleridae bear a great resemblance 

 to Insects of other families, and it appears probable that they 

 resemble in one or more points the Insects on which they feed. 

 The species are now very numerous, about 1000 being known, 

 but they are rare in collections ; in Britain we have only nine 

 species, and some of them are now scarcely ever met with. 



Fam. 57. Lymexylonidae. Elongate beetles, with soft integu- 

 ments, front and middle coxae exserted, longitudinal in position; 

 tarsi slender, Jive-jointed ; antennae short, serrate, but ratltcr broad. 

 Although there are only twenty or thirty species of this family, 

 they occur in most parts of the world, and are remarkable on 

 account of their habit of drilling cylindrical holes in hard wood, 

 after the manner of Anobiidae. The larva of Lymexylon navale was 

 formerly very injurious to timber used for constructing ships, but 

 of late years its ravages appear to have been of little importance. 

 The genus Atractocerus consists of a few species of very abnormal 

 1 Ann. Soc. cnt. France, 1894, j>. 7. 



