PTINID^E. 471 



great abundance in several nests of Vespa in the Museum 

 of the Peabody Academy, where it undoubtedly eat the dried 

 remains of the wasps ; it was extensively preyed upon by a 

 Pteromalus-like Chalcid. 



The genus Anobium is cylindrical, the eleven-jointed an- 

 tennae are distant from each other at base and inserted immedi- 

 ately in front of the eyes, the mesosternum is flat, and 

 the anterior coxae are nearly contiguous. The larva 

 is thick and fleshy, resembling some Scarabseid larvae 

 in the fleshy baggy tip of the abdomen, except that 

 they do not lay on their side when walking. They 

 construct a silken cocoon interweaving the particles 

 of dust they make. A. notatum Say is blackish lg ' u 

 above, varied with ashen, and the posterior angles of the pro- 

 thorax are rather acute. In Europe they are called Death- 

 ticks, as the ticking made by them in the walls of houses, a 

 familiar sound in this country, was supposed by the supersti- 

 tious to announce the death of persons, though it is but a 

 sexual call. Doubt having been thrown on the statement that 

 Anobium causes the ticking noise, Mr. H. Doubleday states 

 in the "Entomologist," vol. iii, p. 66, "I can speak positively 

 with regard to the Anobium, and I assure you that this little 

 beetle produces the loud ticking sound by raising itself upon 

 its legs as high as it can, and then striking the head and under 

 part of the thorax against the substance upon which 

 it is standing, generally five or six times in succes- 

 sion, and it always chooses a substance which pro- 

 duces the most sound. It is evidently a call note 

 from one individual to another, as you very rarely 

 hear one rap without its being immediately answered * lg ' 

 by another." Mr. Sanborn has reared the larva (Fig. 441, en- 

 larged) of Ernobius mollis Fabr., which is a near ally of Ano- 

 bium. 



Bostrichus and its allies are distinguished by their long 

 bodies, the head being usually bent down and covered by the 

 hood-like thorax ; the antennae are distant and the anterior 

 coxae are contiguous. They are found in fungi or under bark. 

 In Bostrichus the front is margined on the sides. In Amphi- 

 cerus the front is not so margined. The apple twig borer, A. 



