Common Beetles of our Countryside 



and short clubbed antennae. With a glass this greyish 

 appearance will be seen to be due to the thick grey 

 down with which it is covered. This is Meligethes 

 murinus (the mouse-like, i.e. grey, Meligethes), Fig. 5, 

 Plate IV. It is about 2 mm. long, and its distinctly 

 clubbed antennas show that it is one of the group 

 Clavicornia. The whole surface of the body is closely 

 punctured and all the tibiae, or second leg joints, are 

 flattened out and enlarged, the peculiarity of the genus 

 Meligethes being that these tibiae of the front pair 

 of legs are toothed along their whole outside edge, 

 in some cases quite finely and in others coarsely ; and 

 it is the character of this serration which to a great 

 extent determines the species of this genus. In this 

 case the teeth are regular, but rather coarse, much 

 coarser than in Meligethes czneus, a species we have 

 already taken. 



We shall not find much more of interest especially 

 attached to the viper's bugloss, but if we turn our 

 attention to the St. John's wort, Hypericum perforatum, 

 we may do better. 



By sweeping this plant we ought to find a beetle 

 of a genus we have not yet met with, that is, Chry- 

 somela, and our species Chrysomela hyperici (the 

 Chrysomela of the St. John's wort), Fig. 16, Plate IV. 

 Chrysomela is a genus of the Phytophaga, but one that 

 has nothing to do with the Halticida or leaping division 

 of the group. They are almost round, very convex, 

 slow moving beetles, above the average size of our 

 other Phytophaga, with legs in which all the tarsal 



10 



