MODE OF DETERMINING SPECIES. 9!) 



feeding caterpillars. It is a whitish grvib, thick towards tlie 

 shoulder and tapering to the head and tail. The segments are 

 very distinctly marked, and the last segment is armed with two 

 hook-like appendages curving upwards. When it is about to 

 change to the pupal form, it descends the trunk of the tree, 

 ond hides itself in the moist earth about the roots ; and after it 

 has obtained its perfect form, it is generally to be fouud in the 

 crevices of the bark. 



On Woodcut X. Fig. 5, is shown another of these Beetles, 

 Meligethes cvneus. This genus is known by the squared and 

 metallic body, the long elytra, and the third joint of the 

 antennie, exactly as long as the fourth and fifth together. The 

 form of the maxilla is shoAAm on the same illustration at 

 Fig. b. All the Beetles of this genus are very small, and are 

 invariably to be found in flowers, creeping from their hiding 

 places under the petals when the flower is gathered or shaken. 

 Being very minute insects, a careful examination with a some- 

 what powerful lens is needed to distinguish the species, and, 

 even then, the little creatures are so like each other in size 

 and colour, that the entomologist is obliged to abandon the 

 usual mode of determ.ining species, and tu trust to the number 

 of notches in the tibiae of the first pair of legs. 



Tliis species is variable in colour, being blue-black, violet, 

 or dark green-blue, over which is a sort of brassy gloss. It 

 seldom exceeds the twelfth of an inch in length, and is a very 

 good example of its genus. It is plentiful throughout Eng- 

 land. 



Still keeping to the same family, we take another of the 

 sub-families, the Ipsina, which have the front of the head 

 lengthened and covering the labrum, the fom'th joint of the 

 tarsus being very minute. Our first example of these insects is 

 Rhizopha;/us ferrugineus, which is shown on Woodcut XL 

 Fig. 1. Tliese Beetles have much narroAver bodies than the 

 preceding, the antennae are short and boldly clubbed, with 

 a large basal joint. The head is not sunk in the thorax, 

 and the elytra are not so long as the abdomen. They are 

 mostly to be found under tlie bark of trees, but some are 

 fond of inhabiting old bones, and are even parasitic in anfs' 



H 2 



