470 



COLEOPTERA. 



Fig. 439. 



with small scales as in the genera alluded to." Cupes capitata 

 Fabr. is black with the head red ; while Cupes cinerea Say is 

 pale gray, with darker lines. They are found under the bark 

 of decaying trees, and also occasionally in houses. (Leconte.) 



PTINID^E Leach. These are small beetles, often of an ob- 

 scure brown color, somewhat oval in shape, and truncated 

 behind ; the nine-jointed filiform antennae are inserted on the 

 front, or sides of the front ; the head is retractile, frequently 



protected by the prothorax ; the 

 labrum is distinct ; the maxillae 

 have two ciliate lobes, and the 

 maxillary palpi are short and 

 four-jointed. The legs are slen- 

 der, contractile, and the insect 

 when disturbed draws them up 

 and feigns death. In Ptinus 

 the antennae are inserted on the 

 front very close together, the 

 legs are long, not contractile, with large trochanters ; the teeth 

 of the mentum are acute, and the labrum is rounded. The 

 males differ from the short and thickened females in being long 

 and narrow. The beetles are found about out-houses, the wood 

 of which they perforate in various directions. Ptinus fur Linn. 

 (Fig. 439, ; a, larva), the most commonly diffused 

 species, is known to attac^: museums and collec- 

 tions of insects. It is .15 of an inch in length, 

 <ind uniformly chestnut brown in color. The larva 

 here figured was found eating the dried contents 

 of a shell in the Museum of the Peabody 

 Academy of Science. 



Sitodrepa panicea Fabr. (Fig. 440, pupa) is a 

 Fig. 440. sma ii insect like Anobium, of a pale reddish 

 brown color, with much paler dense hairs. It is .13 of an inch 

 long. The larva resembles in its form that of Ptinus, but the 

 body is much thicker, not growing smaller towards the head 

 as in that genus ; the end of the body is smooth, obtusely 

 rounded, with fine hairs ; it is .08 of an inch long and un- 

 doubtedly grows larger. It occurred in all its stages and in 



