THE TBOGOSITID^E. 319 



species and those of the Atlantic islands have been satisfactorily investigated by the Rev. A. Matthews ; 

 but the group is by no means confined to temperate climates, several species having been found in India 

 and Ceylon. In general form the Trichopterygidae are oblong or oval, sometimes slightly flattened, 

 sometimes convex ; generally finely pubescent, but often polished. Their antennae are eleven-jointed, 

 the three terminal joints forming a club, and their tarsi are three-jointed. The parts of the mouth pre- 

 sent nothing remarkable, except the great development of the stem of the lower jaws, which is long 

 and thick, and bears at its extremity the usual two lobes (or the blade and its outer lobe), both armed 

 with fine teeth, the blade with one, the lobe with several. The wing-covers are sometimes much 

 abbreviated, and sometimes entire, but the membranous wings beneath them are of extraordinary 

 shape, and furnish the chief character as well as the name of the family. They resemble a miniature 

 feather, having a slender horny stem supporting a lance-shaped membranous blade fringed with long 

 hairs, which latter project when the wings are folded beneath the wing-cases. In some species the 

 wings are rudimentary, and in others they disappear almost altogether. These latter are blind insects. 



The SCAPHIDIID.E are Beetles of larger size, from one-tenth to a third of an inch in length, 

 and recognisable by their short, thick, boat-shaped form, much narrowed both in front and behind, 

 with glossy black or chestnut-coloured surface. Their antennae and legs are rather long and 

 slender, the former with their five terminal joints generally thickened. Their lower jaws are 

 weak and membranous, their wing-covers clipped short behind, leaving the conical tip of the 

 abdomen, of which the four apical segments are horny above, exposed. The tarsi are formed 

 of five slender joints. These Beetles are very nimble on their legs, and fly well. They live and 

 breed in fungi, and are spai-ingly distributed over the whole earth, under the Equator as well 

 as beyond the Ai-ctic Circle in Lapland. Some of the species are prettily spotted. 



The PHALACRID.E are a group of small Beetles of short and convex form of body, having 

 eleven-jointed antennae, of which the three terminal joints are thickened into a very distinct club. 

 The wing-cases are entire, covering the whole abdomen, and the abdomen is composed of five 

 freely-articulated segments. The tarsi are five-jointed, the three first having fine brush-like palms, 

 and the fourth being very short. Most of the few known species are found on flowers, and 

 they fly well. 



The NITIDULID.E are a very numerous family, distinguishable by the short, oblong, generally 

 depressed form, with truncated wing-cases and antennae terminated by a button-shaped club. The 

 maxillae, or lower jaws, are remarkable for the absence of the usual exterior lobe. The tarsi are 

 five-jointed, with the fourth very small, and the abdomen consists of five free segments. The head is 

 almost always retracted, and protected by the projecting lateral angles of the thorax. Eight hundred 

 species are known, distributed over all climates, from the Equator to the Arctic Circle and the islands 

 in the Antarctic Sea. In habits they offer great diversity ; for although the majority exhibit the 

 necrophagous tendencies of the tribe, feeding and breeding in decaying vegetable and animal 

 substances, such as fungi, rotten bark and wood, in the exudations of trees, and in the dried skins and 

 carcases of animals, a great number are found only on flowers. In tropical America certain species 

 of one of the genera (Carpophilus) are seen in countless multitudes in the flowers of palm-trees ; and 

 in Europe the little brassy Nitidulids of the genus Meligethes true Flower-beetles sometimes prove 

 very destructive to cultivated plants, on account of their numbers. Meligethes ceneus is one of the 

 chief enemies of farmers in some parts of Germany for the injury it does to rape crops. These 

 ubiquitous Beetles in many species are among the commonest insects of our fields in the summer, it 

 being rare to find a wild flower untenanted by one or more individuals. 



FAMILIES TROGOSITID^E, COLYDIID.E, RHYSODIDJE, CUCUJID^E, CRYPTOPHAGIDJE, LATHRI- 

 DIID^E, MYCETOPHAGID^E, THORICTID.E, DERMESTID^E, BYRRHID^E, HISTERID^E. 



"We now come to a series of families, all that remain to be noticed of the tribe Necrophaga, which 

 not only differ very materially in their characters from one another, but depart, each in its own way, 

 from the chief features of the tribe. 



The first (TROGOSITID.E) are closely allied to the Nitidulidse in some parts of their structure, 

 but they differ in important characters, the form of the lower jaws, and the tarsi, being peculiar, 

 as in the Nitidulidse, but in the reverse way : thus the lower jaws have only one lobe, but it is 



