Beetles 



261 



half times natural 

 size.) 



C, I'illosus (Fig. 356), common all over the country, is about f inch long, 



blackish, with an incomplete broad transverse patch of yellowish-gray hairs 



across the elytra and another on the second and third abdominal segments. 



Leistotrophus is a genus with but one American species, L. cingulatus, about 



same size as the preceding, but of grayish-brown color 



indistinctly spotted with brown and with a golden tinge 



on the tip of the abdomen. Staphylinus is a genus of 



twenty species or more; S. maculosus, i inch long, is 



dark cinnamon-brown with a row of squarish black 



spots along the middle of the abdomen; 5. cinna- 



moptems, % inch long, is cinnamon-colored, with 



blackish abdomen; S. tomentosus, \ inch long, is deep 



_, . , 1.11 -111 -^u FIG. -KO. Rove-bee- 



dull black; S. molaceus, \ inch long, is black with tie, Creophilus vil- 



thorax and elytra violet. Not uncommon along sandy losus. (One and one- 

 seashore in California is a curious light-brown wing- 

 less rove-beetle, Thinopinus pictus, with very short 

 elytra, each with an open black ring, and with a double row of small black 

 dots on the abdomen. Its abdomen is short and rather broad 



Another family of carrion-beetles of comparatively few species, some of 

 which, however, are familiar and widely distributed, is that of the Silphidae, 



or burying-beetles. Both adults and larvae 

 feed almost exclusively on decaying flesh. 

 The antennae of most species have the last 

 four or five segments expanded and fused 

 so as to form a conspicuous little ball or a 

 compact club. Two genera include most 

 o" the familiar species, although the one 

 hundred North American species of the 

 family represent thirty different genera. 

 These two are Silpha (Fig. 357), the roving 

 carrion-beetles, and Necrophorus (Fig. 



FIG. 357. Carrion-beetle, Silpha 358), the burying-beetles. The charac- 



noveboracensis. (One and one-half terist j c ^ &nd appearance o f these two 

 times natural size.) 



FIG. 358. Burying-beetle, Necropho- types are well shown in the figures. The 



rus marginatus. (One and one- spec i es o f Silpha are short, broad-bodied, 



half times natural size.) r . 



flat, dull blackish, and with the elytra rather 



leathery than horny, and lined longitudinally with shallow grooves. The 

 prothorax is subcircular, with thin projecting margins. The larvae (Fig. 

 359) and adults are found in and underneath putrid flesh. The larvae 

 are apparently more active than the adults. Silpha lapponica, a common 

 dull black form in both Europe and America, is said to enter houses in Lap- 

 land to eat the stores of animal provisions. S. americana (PI. II, Fig. 5) has 



FIG. 357. 



FIG. 358. 



