268421 



ILLUSTRATIONS 



OF 



BRITISH ENTOMOLOGY. 



Subsectio 4. — Necrophaga, Mac Leay^ 



Includes such Rypophagous insects as have the 



Mandibles generally exserted and elongate : the maxillary palpi with the basal 

 joint minute or evanescent, thence appearing three-jointed ; the maxillae 

 with a double membranaceous process, the outer lobe often slender, sublinear ; 

 rarely articulated : the elytra frequently abbreviated ; the body more or less 

 elongate, depressed : the legs all gressorial : the tarsi with the number of arti- 

 culations various, but most frequently pentamerous : 



And the principal object of whose existence seems to be that of 

 cleansing the surface of the earth from the remains of animal im- 

 purities, as that of the preceding section appears to be from vegetable 

 remains ; the conterminous genera in both sections subsisting upon 

 putrid fungi or similar vegetable productions, while some few of 

 the Silphidse prey upon larvae and living terrestrial Mollusca. 



f 4-vel 5-articulato. 

 Mandibuloe - 



Antennarum 

 capitulo •( 

 plerumque 



ad apicem plerumque bidentataj: 17. Scathidiu.-e. 



integral : 



18. SilfhidjE. 



l_2-vel3-arti- 

 culato. 



Mandibuloe -| 



"elongatae, ad apicem 

 ssepissime f articulo 3-o plerumque 

 einarginatae. j dilatato-bifido: 19. Nitidulid.e. 



Tarsi \ 



I articulis omnibus 



I. integris : . 20. Engidje.* 



^breves, crassas: 



21. DermestiDjE. 



• In some of the Engidae, a family that probably requires subdivision, the 

 capitulum of the antennae consists of more than three joints; while others' 

 Mandibulata. Vol. III. 30th April, 1830. b 



