376 INSECTA. 



Sometimes the body is oblong, and the head, strangulated poste- 

 riorly, is as wide as the anterior margin of the thorax, or not much 

 narrower; the latter forms a square^ with rounded angles; the elytra 

 form a long square, and are suddenly and strongly truncated at their 

 posterior extremity. The posterior thighs, at least in the males, 

 are usually inflated. The last joint of the maxillary palpi is rather 

 more slender than the preceding one, almost cylindrical, somewhat 

 smaller at the end, and obtuse. The anterior tarsi are dilated in the 

 males. 



Neckophorus, Fab. — Silpha, Lin. — Dermcstes, Geoff. 



The antennse, hardly longer than the head, terminate abruptly in 

 an almost globular club of four joints, the first of which is long, and 

 the second much shorter than the third. The body nearly forms a 

 parallelopiped; the thorax is widest anteriorly; all the tibiae are 

 strong, widened at the extremity and terminated by stout spursj 

 the elytra are truncated at right angles. The maxillae are destitute 

 of a horny unguiculus. 



Their instinctive habit of burying the bodies of Moles, Mice, and 

 other small Quadrupeds, have procured for them the names of enter- 

 reurs and porte-morts. When they find a dead animal of the above 

 description, they work under it and excavate a hole of sufficient 

 dimensions to contain the body, which they gradually drag into itj 

 in this body they deposit their ova, and thus the larvae find their food 

 in the very nidus in which they are hatched. They are long, and 

 of a greyish white colour; the anterior segments are covered supe- 

 riorly with a small, fulvous-brown, squamous plate, and the poste- 

 rior with 'little elevated points. They are furnished with six feet and 

 strong mandibles. When "about to pass into the state of a chrysalis, 

 they penetrate deeply into the earth, where they construct a cell, 

 which they line with a viscid substance. 



These Insects, as well as many others that inhabit dead animal 

 bodies, diffuse a strong odour resembling musk. Their habits have 

 lately attracted the attention of Mole-catchers, and in the work enti- 

 tled UArt du Taupier we find certain facts relative to this subject 

 which had escaped the observations of naturalists. The sense of 

 smell must be excessively acute in these Insects, for but a short time 

 elapses after a Mole has been killed, when Necrophori are seen cir- 

 cling about it, although they were previously sought for in vain in 

 the same locality. 



The digestive canal of the Necrophori and Silphae is at least thrice 

 the length of the body. The oesophagus is very short and followed 

 by an ellipsoidal gizzard, whose lining tunic is slightly scabrous and 



