ON THE SERRICORNES. 377 



since the manners and mode of life of insects have presented 

 to us an infinity of wonders, not before suspected to exist ; 

 since philosophers have had the good sense to discover that 

 the study of these little animals had its application in the 

 arts and in medicine, and that it was connected with the ani- 

 mal and vegetable economy ; above all, since their number, 

 in our collections, has exceeded that of plants, naturalists 

 have been obliged to form new sub-divisions from time to 

 time, and to multiply genera in proportion to the progress of 

 discovery. 



Geoffroy very well appreciated the natural relations of the 

 insects of which we are now treating, when he placed one of 

 the most common species, (Dermestes violaceus^ Lin.) in his 

 new genus clerus^ which is composed for the most part of 

 many attelahi of the Swedish naturalist ; but this species, 

 and some others analogous, presenting certain peculiar cha- 

 racters, have been united into another generic section by 

 M. Latreille, called Necrohia, a name compounded of the 

 Greek word, necros, (carcase,) and bios^ life, because these 

 insects are usually found in dead and decomposed animal 

 bodies. 



The necrobiae are adorned with very fine colours. Their 

 walk is slow, and their flight by no means rapid. 



They are sometimes found on flowers, and on the leaves of 

 plants ; but they more particularly frequent carcasses and the 

 dried spoils of animals. The larva, which feeds on these last- 

 mentioned substances, has the body elongated, soft, and com- 

 posed of many rings. It has six scaly feet, and two scaly 

 crooks near the anus. Its growth is tolerably quick, and it 

 undergoes its metamorphosis in the same places in which it 

 has lived. 



As for the tribe of Ptiniores. in general, it consists of 

 small insects, which, like some of the last, counterfeit death 

 when they are seized. Most of them are fond of obscure 



