100 



CALIFORNIA STATE COMMISSION OF HORTICULTURE. 



FIG. 87. Hydrophilus triangularis. Natural size. 



The family Staphylinidae, or rove-beetle family, is a large and widely 

 distributed group, its members being characterized by the possession of 

 short, leathery wing-covers, which leave the abdomen exposed. They 

 live in decaying animal or vegetable matter, excrement, or in flowers. 

 In the spring, certain tiny flower-inhabiting forms take 

 to flight in great swarms, get in the eyes of travelers 

 and become very annoying on account of their acrid 

 body-fluids. 



FIG. 88. Rove- 

 beetle (Staphi- 

 linid sp.). 



The Silphidse, or "burying-beetle" family, are found 

 on carrion and in fungi. The antennae are terminated 

 by a short spherical club, in which are the very sensi- 

 tive organs of smell, and the wing-covers are slightly 

 shortened. The thick-bodied beetles, black marked with 



red, and with the habit of digging under small animals until they are 



buried, belong to the genus Necrophorus, and are the burying-beetles 



proper. 



The genus Silpha, or roving carrion-beetles, are short, broad, flat, 



black in color, and have longitudinally grooved elytra. 



The Cueujidse are a family of small beetles, light brown in color, flat 

 and narrow in shape, well fitted for their habitat under the bark of 

 trees. One species, Silvanus surnamensis, the saw-toothed grain-beetle, 

 infests stored grain and dried food products of all sorts. 



The Dermestidse are the beetles commonly known as the buffalo- 

 moths and carpet-beetles. They are small, stout, oval forms with weak 

 legs, and feed in all stages on stored animal and vegetable products, 

 dried insect specimens, furs, feathers, stuffed animals, and on cheese 



