COLEOPTERA. 381 



NECROPHORUS, Fab. 



Their instinctive habit of burying the bodies of Moles, Mice, and other 

 small Quadrupeds, have procured for them the names ofenterreurs andporte- 

 morts. When they find a dead animal of the above description, they work 

 under it and excavate a hole of sufficient dimensions to contain the body, 

 which they gradually drag into it; in this body they deposit their ova, and 

 thus the larvae find their food in the very nidus in which they are hatched. 

 They are long, and of a greyish white colour; the anterior segments are 

 covered superiorly with a small fulvous-brown, squamous plate, and the 

 posterior with little elevated points. They are furnished with six feet and 

 strong mandibles. When about to pass into the state of a chrysalis, they 

 penetrate deeply into the earth, where they construct a cell, which they 

 line with a viscid substance. 



North America possesses one, the N. grandis, which surpasses all others 

 in size and beauty. 



SILPHA, Lin. Fab. 



The body of a true Silpha is almost scutiform and depressed, or but 

 slightly elevated; thorax semicircular, truncated or very obtuse before; ex- 

 terior margin of the elytra strongly recurved and canaliculated; palpi fili- 

 form, their last joint almost cylindrical, and in several, terminating in a 

 point. Most of them live in carrion, and thus diminish the quantity of its 

 noxious effluvia. Some climb on plants, and particularly on the stems of 

 wheat, where they find little Helices on which they feed. Others remain 

 on high trees and devour caterpillars. The larvae are all equally active, 

 live in the same manner, and frequently in large societies. They bear a 

 great resemblance to the perfect Insect. Their body is flattened, and con- 

 sists of twelve segments, with acute posterior angles; the posterior ex- 

 tremity is narrower and terminated by two conical appendages. 



AHGYRTES, Freeh. Mycetophagus, Fab, 



The body tolerably thick, convex, and arcuated superiorly, not scutiform; 

 thorax somewhat wider than long, and a little narrower before; exterior 

 margin of the elytra inclined and not canaliculated, last joint of the maxil- 

 lary palpi thicker and ovoid. 



Certain Clavicornes, which seem to approach Argyrtes in their 

 habits and other characters, but whose mandibles are cleft or biden- 

 tated at the extremity, will compose our fourth tribe, that of the 

 SCAPHIDITES. Their tarsi consist of five very distinct and entire 

 joints. The body is oval, narrowed at both ends, arcuated or con- 

 vex above, and thick in the middle; the head low, and received pos- 

 teriorly into a trapezoidal thorax, widest behind, the margin of which 

 is but slightly or not at all recurved. The antenna) are usually at 



