71 INSECTS AT UOME. 



on tlie slioulder, and a line of the same colour upon the 

 posterior margin. Tlie antennae are rather curiously coloured, 

 the four first joints being black, the next five pale-red, and the 

 last black, like those of the base. 



It is a very common insect, and may be found in fungi in 

 the autumn. Indeed, in consequence of their fungi-loving 

 habits, all these Beetles are to be found towards the close of 

 the yeai-. As this is a common species, the reader is recom- 

 mended to try his hand at setting it in the way above- 

 mentioned. Even if three or four be spoiled, plenty more can 

 be procured, and the practice will be invaluable when insects of 

 greater rarity have to be set. None of the Tachyporidoe are 

 large, and though most of them frequent fungi, many are found 

 under leaf-heaps, in bones, and similar localities. 



The reader mil experience no difficulty in identifying the 

 curious Beetle drawn on Woodcut No. VIII. Fig. 2, when he 

 finds it ; for, in the first place, he will find no other Beetle in 

 the same locality, and in the next place, its serrated antennae 

 and roimd and shield-like thorax will at once point it out to 

 him. The name of this Beetle is Quedius \_Velleius'] dilatatus. 



There are more than twenty species of this genus, which may 

 be known by the shield-like thorax. Some of them are ex- 

 ceedingly variable ; one of them, Quedius fuljidus, having 

 been .called by no less than thirteen names. The present 

 species is broad and black, with a beautiful iridescence on the 

 abdomen, and, although so sombrely coloured, is a great acqui- 

 sition to the cabinet. Formerly it was the rarest of the rare 

 among British Beetles, and even now is one of the greatest 

 treasures that au entomologist can possess ; but, now that its 

 locality is known, it may perhaps oftener find a place in our 

 cabinets. The_ secret of its rarity is that it is one of the 

 parasitic Brachelytra, and lives in the nest of the Jiornet. jNIr. 

 F. Smith, who has paid so much attention to this subject, 

 thinks tli.it the larva of the Quedius feeds upon tliat of the 

 hornet, and mentions that he has found in a hornet's nest a 

 considerable number of dead larva?, which he believed to be 

 those of the Quedius. Up to the present time, 1871, he has 

 not^tound a specimen of the Beetle, though he has opened very 

 many liornets' nests. We may call it the Hornet Bektle. 



