THE SILPHID^. 267 



into the ground, and they then cover it over with loose 

 soil and deposit their eggs in it. The larva is speedily 

 developed, grows rapidly to its fuU size, and then buries 

 itself to undergo its subsequent transformation. Nature, 

 universally, carefully conceals these changes ; she will 

 not, voluntarily, admit a spectator in her tiring room ; 

 and if we wish to witness these transmutations, it must 

 be done by subterfuge, — and even when exercising all 

 that we are capable of, she will frequently evade us. 

 Hence it is, that we know so little of the transformations 

 of insects, — a subject, however, replete with the greatest 

 interest, and one, the careful notice of the progressive 

 stages of which we cannot too strongly inculcate the 

 due observation of, when those fleeting and rare oppor- 

 tunities present themselves. These insects frequently 

 emit a sort of musky odour, which would be far from 

 disagreeable were it exhaled by a flower ; but proceeding, 

 as we assume it does, by secretion, from the nauseous 

 substances they inhabit and feed on, our imagination 

 makes it loathsome, and thus evinces how much we are 

 the slaves of that faculty. In some, which are most 

 approximate to the typical Necrophori, — namely, Ne- 

 erodes, — the posterior thighs are frequently thickened: 

 SUpha itself, and its closest aUies, are flat or hemispheri- 

 cal ; and the Nitidulce are distinguished by the enlarged 

 basal joint of the antennae : the various forms this takes, 

 and the various relative proportions of the following 

 joints, and of the club, which is sometimes solid, with 

 merely transverse sutures, or consists of three successive 

 joints, or sometimes four or more are incrassated, have 

 divided this group into a multitude of small genera, the 

 habits of which present some diversity, although they 

 frequent resembling substances. Thus, some occur with 

 the types in carrion, as Nitidula proper, which is the 

 most numerous genus of all ; others are found in fungi, 

 as Atomaria, Triphyllus, Mycetophagus, Phloiophilus, 

 and Strongylus ; others occur only in flowers, as Bytu- 

 rus, Cateretes, Meligetheit, and Antherophagus ; many 

 beneath the bark of trees, as Ips, Engis, Tetratoma, and 



