i3» 



INSECTS. 



occurring in Europe, seven are found in Britain, N. vespillo being perhaps the 

 one which is most widely distributed. Most of the species of the genus Silpha — 

 from which the family name is derived — are dark, sombre-looking insects, some- 

 what ovate in shape, the prothorax being broad and closely applied to the base of 



the elytra, while the elytra 

 usually extend to the tip of 

 the abdomen. The head is 

 small, and when turned down 

 is hidden under the pronotum. 

 The beetles themselves are 

 generally met with in or about 

 dead animals, but some of the 

 species display a partiality for 

 a vegetable diet ; thus in 

 France the adult Silpha 

 reticulata has been found to 

 attack wheat, while Silpha 

 nigrita devours strawberries 

 in the Alps and Pyrenees. 

 The larvae of most of the 



Silplut atrata and larva (rather less than nat. size). 



species are somewhat like wood-lice in shape, with the posterior angles of the 

 abdominal segments sharply produced. Those of S. opaca and S. atrata are some- 

 times very destructive to the leaves of sugar-beet and mangold-wurzel. 



The Trichopterygidce, or hairy-winged beetles, are exceedingly minute insects, 

 the smallest, in fact, of all- the beetles, many of the species being less than the 

 fiftieth part of an inch in length. They are further remarkable on account of 

 the structure of their wings. These 

 organs are very long and narrow, 

 each consisting of a strip of mem- 

 brane attached to a horny stalk and 

 fringed on each side with long and 

 closely-set hairs. 



The HisteridcG form a well- 

 defined family, widely distributed, 

 and numbering considerably more 

 than twelve hundred species. In 

 colour they offer little variety, being 

 mostly either black, dark blue, or 

 green, the elytra being occasionally 

 spotted with red or yellow. They 



are compactly oval or oblong-oval in form, and nearly always present a highly 

 polished appearance. The antennae are short, with a long basal joint and a very 

 distinct terminal club, and as a rule are capable of being turned back into grooves 

 beneath the thorax. The elytra are truncate at the tips, leaving the last two 

 segments of the abdomen exposed ; they are generally marked with a series of finely 

 impressed longitudinal lines, the number and disposition of which afford useful 



Hister fimetanus and larva (nat. size). 



