﻿COCCINELLIDAE ENDOMYCHIDAE MYCETAEIDAE 239 



Pseudotrimera. But they are generally placed in the Clavicorn 

 series, near Endomychidae, Verhoeff has recently made con- 

 siderable morphological studies on the male genital organs of 

 Coleoptera, and as the result, he concludes that Coccinellidae 

 differ radically from all other Coleoptera as regards these 

 structures, and he therefore treats them as a distinct series or 

 sub-order, termed Siphonophora. The genus Lithophilus has been 

 considered doubtfully a member of Coccinellidae, as the tarsi 

 possess only in a slight degree the shape characteristic of the 

 family : Verhoeff finds that they are truly Coccinellidae, forming 

 a distinct division, Lithophilini; and our little species of Coccidula, 

 which have somewhat the same appearance as Lithophilini, he 

 treats as another separate group, Coccidulini. 



Fam. 39. Endomychidae. 1 — Tarsi apparently three-jointed, the 

 first two joints broad, the terminal joint elongate; at the base of 

 the terminal joint there is, however, a very small joint, so that the 

 tarsi are pseudotetramerous ; antennae rather large, with a large 

 club; labium not at cdl retracted behind the mentum ; front and 

 middle coxae globose ; abdomen with five movable ventral segments, 

 and a sixth more or less visible at the tip. This family includes 

 a considerable diversity of elegant Insects that frequent fungoid 

 growths on wood. It comprises at present fully 500 species, but 

 nearly the whole of them are exotic, and inhabit the tropical 

 forests. We have only two British species, both of which are 

 now rarities, but apparently were much commoner at the 

 beginning of the century. The larvae are 

 broader than is usual in Coleoptera ; very 

 few, however, are known. 



Fam. 40. Mycetaeidae. — Tarsi four- 

 jointed, the first two joints not very different 

 from the third, usually slender; abdomen 

 with five visible ventral segments, which are 

 movable ; front and middle coxae globular. 

 The little Insects composing this family are 

 by many placed as a division of Endomy- 

 chidae, and Verhoeff is of opinion that the 

 group is an altogether artificial one ; but we think, with Duval, 

 it makes matters simpler to separate them. There are only 



1 Gerstaecker, Monographic dcr Endomycltidcn, Leipzig, 858, 1433 pp. Since this 

 work was published, the species known have been multiplied two or three times. 



Fig. 119. — Mycetaea hirta. 

 Britain. A, Larva 

 (after Blisson) ; B, per- 

 fect Insect. 



