414 SUPPLEMENT 



dermestes, and byrrhi, they glue their feet and antennae 

 against the body, suspend all motion, as if they were dead, 

 and remain in this position as long as their fear may endure. 

 Their larvae live in the earth, in dunghills, and in carcasses. 



The larva of H. Cadaverinus was observed by M. La- 

 treille under dried human excrements. This larva creeps, 

 or rather drags itself along, than Avalks ; it can go back- 

 wards. Its skin is so slippery that it escapes the fingers. 



The genus Silpha has been confounded with Cassida, 

 Elophorus, Spheridium, Necrophorus, and Nitidula. But 

 all those genera are easily distinguished from it, by the cha- 

 racters which have been assigned to them. 



The Silphas sufficiently indicate by their disgusting dirti- 

 ness, and the fetid odour which they exhale, what their 

 manner of living is, and what the character of their ordi- 

 nary habitation. They are sometimes found in the fields ; 

 but they habitually seek out sombre and retired places which 

 conceal the carcases, and excrements of animals, which con- 

 stitute their food. One circumstance proves that their dis- 

 agreeable odour is the effect of those animal substances in 

 a, state of putrefaction, in which they are continually groping, 

 and on which they feed. This is, that those which are but 

 just born, and have not yet made use of this description of 

 aliment, have no unpleasant odour whatsoever. Thus we 

 find, that the office which may be assigned to those insects, 

 in the general economy of Nature, is to purge the earth of 

 those impurities, which the destruction and decomposition 

 of living beings must be incessantly producing. The same 

 is the case with the great majority of the larvae of flies, of 

 dermestes, of necrophori, and of certain staphylini, &c. 



When the silphae are taken in the hand, they cause to 

 issue from the mouth and anus, a drop of black and muddy 

 liquor, the odour of which is of the most abominable atro- 

 city. This fluid is not produced by the effect of compres- 



