Lathridiidce.] CLAVICORNIA. 275 



LATHBIDIID.E. 



This family contains a large number of small and obscure insects, 

 which are found in various situations, but, as a rule, in various kinds of 

 vegetable refuse, moss, fungi, faggots, bark, &c. ; the constitution of the 

 family has given rise to much dispute ; the genera Langelandia, Dasy- 

 cerus, Holoparamecus, and Anommatus, which have been by some 

 authors included in the family, are by others referred to other groups, 

 and the question as regards their true position is to a certain extent 

 still undecided ; others again include Myrmecoxenus and Hypocoprus, 

 both of which seem to be connected with the family by their external 

 facies, but on a closer examination seem to agree more naturally with 

 other families ; the student who may wish to study this most interesting 

 family more deeply is referred to the writings of Herr lieitter, and more 

 especially to the valuable monograph on the " Famille des Lathridiens " 

 by M. Belon, to whose courtesy I am much indebted, and whose arrange- 

 ment of the tribes I have, after some consideration, followed ; the genus 

 concerning which I feel most doubt is Anommatus, which the Eev. A. 

 Matthews, after studying the external skeleton, refers to the Colydiidse ; 

 Mr. Matthews also refers Holoparamecus to the Mycetophagidae, and in 

 the catalogue published by us in 1883 these genera will be found 

 occupying these respective positions ; as, however, we study these obscure 

 families, we cannot help being struck with the impossibility of locating 

 certain synthetic genera with any feeling of certainty, and the true posi- 

 tions of several will probably be found eventually to be very different 

 from those now assigned to them, as connecting forms are discovered in 

 various parts of the world ; at the same time it is a much better course 

 to place them provisionally than simply, as some writers have done, to 

 separate them off as " genera incertae sedis " in a sort of appendix. 



The species belonging to the family are widely distributed throughout 

 the world, and some are almost cosmopolitan ; when once introduced 

 they seem to have the power of spreading very fast and very widely ; 

 thus Lathridius nodifer, which some forty years ago was very rare, has 

 become one of our commonest insects, and has spread to the most remote 

 districts. 



The following are the chief characters of the family : Form usually 

 more or less oval, with the head and thorax narrower than elytra, but some- 

 times parallel or even filiform ; head varying in shape but usually rather 

 large in proportion, antennae 8-11 -jointed, terminating in a more or less 

 distinct club, mandibles not strongly developed, maxillaa with two lobes, 

 maxillary palpi 4-jointed, with the last joint large ; anterior coxse conical 

 and prominent, with the coxal cavities closed behind ; elytra covering 

 abdomen ; tarsi 3-jointed, with the last joint elongate, terminating in 

 two simple claws. 



The larvae of the Lathridiidee are elongate-oval or more or less elliptical, of n dirty- 

 whitish colour, with the body clothed with more or less thick and variously shaped 



T 2 



