MR. A. MURRAY'S MONOGRAPH OF THE FAMILY OF NITIDULARLE. 227 
application. He includes Erichson's spurious Strongyline in his Nitiduline, making the 
character of the section that the prothorax does not cover the base of the elytra, and 
dividing it into two groups, the Nitidulide proper and the Meligethide, by the prolonga- 
tion or not of the prosternum behind the anterior coxæ. He then gives the “ prothorax 
covering the base of the elytra” as the character for his Cychramini, by which name he 
designates Erichson’s Strongyline genuine. 
While I admit that the Veligethide deserve a subsection to themselves, I think with 
Erichson that they have more affinity with the Strongyling than with the Nitidulide 
proper, and therefore I have so arranged my characters as to bring them into that section. 
On the other hand, I think the affinity between Phenolia, Lobiopa, Stelidota, &c., and 
Lordites and Gaulodes is so great, that it is impossible to retain the latter among the 
Strongyline. They are the most convex of the Nitidulide proper, and have, of course, 
thence necessarily acquired a corresponding proportion of those characters which 
depend upon the convexity of the insect, but all their other characters range with these 
genera. 
Speaking without precision, the Nitidulide proper may be distinguished as being 
oblong and depressed, whilst the S/rongyline are rounded and convex. With more pre- 
cision, the Strongyline may be characterized by the under side of the thorax being much 
shorter (one-half is about the usual proportion) than the upper side (see fig. 7), the 
Nitidulide by being only slightly shorter (one-third is about the extreme of the least 
convex species) (see fig. 6). The prolongation of the prosternum behind the anterior coxæ 
may, with the qualifications already indicated, be also taken as a character for dividing 
them—the Strongyline possessing it, the Nitidulide not. 
To justify the separation of the Meligethide as a subsec- 
tion from the rest of the Strongyline, the form of the para- 
glossee seems sufficient. In the former they are horned 
(fig. 23), and in the latter more or less rounded (fig. 24). 
A subsection of the JVitidulide may be founded upon | | 
those genera which have the metathoracic axillary pieces — e poer ri 
well developed in contradistinction to those which have ; lodes ater. 
not. 
Fig. 23. Fig. 24. 
R 
7 
HABITS AND GEOGRAPHICAL DISTRIBUTION. 
The chief function of this family is that of scavengers. Their main business is to clear 
off decaying substances from the face of the earth, especially those minute and neglected 
portions which have escaped the attention of other scavengers whose operations are 
conducted on a larger scale. We may characterize them in one point of view as retail 
Scavengers. They are, so to speak, users-up of waste materials. After the beast of prey 
has satisfied his hunger on the animal he has slain, after the hyena and the vulture have 
gorged themselves on its carrion, after the fly with its army of maggots has consumed 
the soft parts, after the burying-beetle and the Silphide have borne their part in the 
clearing away and when nought but the bones remain, then come the Nitidularie to go 
over what they have left, to gnaw off every fragment of ligament or tendon, and to 
