THE CERCYONS. Ill 



the name of the family is derived ; and they are dark-coloured, 

 black being- the usual hue, relieved in some species by reddisli 

 spots. In the genus Cercyon, from which our example is taken, 

 the club of the antenna3 is large and bold, the palpi are slender, 

 and the mentum is broad and flat. 



As is the case with most red and black Beetles, the colour is 

 tixceedingly variable in different individuals, so different indeed, 

 that tlie present species, Cercyon anale, which is drawn on 

 Woodcut XIII. Fig. 2, has been described under four separate 

 names, each name being used to represent a different species. 

 Its colour is black, but the elytra are generally tinted towards 

 the apex with reddish-chestnut, the size and exact tint of this 

 mark varying exceedingly ; and in some specimens the elytra 

 are altogether black. Like the rest of the genus, it can be 

 found in cowdung. 



Formerly some sixty species of Cercyon were catalogued, but 

 they have now been reduced to seventeen genuine species; two- 

 thirds of the imagined species proving, on careful investigation, 

 to be nothing but varieties. In one case, that of Cercyon 

 nigrice/ps, the same insect had been described under seven 

 different names by the same naturalist. 



