294 INSECTS 



In Europe it has been found to visit the flowers of Hawthorn 

 (Cratagus oxyacantha). 



Family MALACODERMID/E 

 Metriorhynchus rufipennis, Fabr. 



Mr Hudson considers that this is probably M. erraticus, which 

 was found in August, 1895, by Major- General Schaw, at Auckland; 

 and which he himself found abundant on dead trees at Ohakune, in 

 January, 1912. This is probably the species which Mr Smith records 

 as so destructive to the foliage of young blue-gum trees (Eucalyptus 

 globulus) in Taranaki. 



It occurs very commonly there under the bark of trees. Mr 

 Smith says this is the commonest location for Australian and Tas- 

 manian beetles. 



Family CLERID^E 



Necrobia ruficollis, Fabr. (Burying Beetle) 



Mr Hudson recorded this beetle in 1890, as occurring commonly 

 in decaying animal matter. It was found by him first at Karori, 

 Wellington, in September, 1888, amongst the dried skin and bones 

 of a dead cow. 



Mr Smith (April, 1919) reports it as very common in Taranaki, 

 occurring under dry boards, among rotten sacks, etc. Also under 

 dead birds and dead sheep. Very abundajnt in stores in Wellington, 

 associated with Dermestes vulpinus, in 1918. 



Necrobia rufipes, De Geer. Red-legged Ham Beetle 

 First recorded from Auckland in 1875 ^Y Captain Broun. Taken 

 by Mr Hudson at the Dee River, Kekerangu, in February, 1890. Mr 

 Philpott says (1917): 



I first met with this species in 1890, when I found it to be very abundant 

 in a fertiliser (bone-dust) works near Invercargill. I have never found it 

 except in, or about, sacks of bone-dust. 



Family ELATERID^E 



Lacon variabilis, Candeze. Australian Click Beetle 

 Recorded by Mr Hudson as taken on the hills around Nelson 

 by Mr A. S. Atkinson in June, 1886 ; and by Commander J. J. Walker 

 at Picton in the autumn of 1902. Very common in Taranaki (April, 

 1919). 



Monocrepidius exsul, Sharp. The Potato Elater 



Stated by Mr Hudson (1917) to be very common at Karori, 

 Wellington. It flies freely in the dusk of the evening. Mr W. W. 



