130 



MELASOMA ; BLAPS. CANTIIARIS. 



pairs of feet, and of only four in the posterior tarsi, entirely feed 

 on vegetable substances ; they are all terrestrial, and most of 

 them frequent dark places. In the rirst family, the MELASOMA 

 or Hack-bodied Beetles, the body is usually of an ashy-brown er 

 black colour ; and the wings are for the most part absent, the 

 elytra being united along the suture. They usually live in the 

 ground, beneath stones, or in the sand often also in low and 

 dark parts of buildings, such as cellars, stables, &c. The insects 

 of this tribe are very tenacious of life ; individuals having been 

 known to remain alive for six months without food, and pierced 



through with a pin. To 

 this family belong the 

 Dlaps mortisaga, a beetle 

 often found in dark and 

 dirty places about houses ; 

 and the Tenelrio molitor, 

 of which the larva, known 

 under the name of the 

 meal-worm, lives in corn 

 and flour, whilst the per- 

 fect insect also frequents 

 bake-houses, corn-mills, &c., where it may be often found in 

 the eaves. 



654. We may pass over the families 

 of TAXICORNES and STENELYTRA, as pre- 

 senting no points of special interest, to notice 

 theTRACHELiDES (wecM-bectles), so named 

 from having the head, which is triangular 

 or heart-shaped, carried on a kind of neck, 

 which separates it from the thorax. The 

 body is soft ; and the elytra are flexible, 

 and sometimes very soft. The majority 

 of this group live in the perfect state upon 

 different vegetables, devouring the leaves, 

 or sucking the juices of the flowers. 

 Many of them, when seized, depress the head and contract the 

 feet, as if they were dead. Their colours are often very brilliant. 

 This is well seen in the Cantharis veswatoria^ commonly known 



FIG. 349. BLAPS MORTISAOA. 



FIG. 351. CANTHARIS 

 VESICATORIA. 



