326 MANDIBULATA. COLEOPTERA. 



the extremity of the abdomen : it inhabits the hive of the honey bee, to which 

 it is very destructive, devouring the larva of the bee in the cell in which it is 

 first born, and proceeding from cell to cell, until arrived at maturity, succes- 

 sively destroying its inhabitant: but fortunately the insect is rare in England. 



1 was present at Coombe-wood, near Dover, in June, when Mr. 

 Stone beat a specimen of this elegant insect out of a hawthorn 

 bush, but which escaped ; but a second example was subsequently- 

 taken near the same spot and forwarded to him, and which is now 

 in the collection of Mr. Bentley : the insect has also been taken in 

 Norfolk, and near Manchester. 



I Sp. 2. alvearius. Hirtus, cyaneus, elytris rufis, maculti communi fasciisque 



tribus nigris tertid abbreviatd. (Long. corp. 5 — 8 lin.) 

 CI. alvearius. Fabricius. — Curtis, i. pi. 64. Steph. Catal. 138. No. 1405. 



Deep bluish-black, very hairy ; head and thorax immaculate : elytra rufous, 

 with a spot at the scutellum, a transverse fascia united thereto at the suture, 

 a little before the middle; a second broader, behind the middle; and a third 

 abbreviated one within the apex, deep bluish-black : legs and antennae blue- 

 black. 



Latreille says that this insect is attached to the nidus of Osmia cornuta (Syst. 

 Catal. No. 5053) ; and that its larva resembles that of the foregoing species, 

 but has a bluish spot on the scutellum. 



This insect is also said to have been taken near Manchester, but 

 a most magnificent specimen is in the collection of Mr. Chant, 

 which was " taken near Dorking, in June." — Mr. Waterhouse. 



Genus CCXLVIII. — Necrobia, Olivier. 



Antenna moderate, slender at the base, the first joint rather large, clavate; the 

 second subglobose ; the third slightly elongated ; the five following shorter, 

 subnodose ; the remainder forming an obtrigonal club, of which the terminal 

 joint is very large and subquadrate, and the two basal ones transverse. Palpi 

 unequal, subfiliform; the terminal joint somewhat fusiform: head small, 

 rounded : thorax subquadrate, a little dilated in the middle, slightly margined. 



The genus Necrobia— of which the species, as the name imports, 

 reside in dead bodies, or in decaying or dried animal substances — 

 may be readily known from Corynetes, by the magnitude of the 

 terminal joint of the antennae, which is about as long, and some- 

 what broader, than the two preceding united, and nearly quadrate, 

 with the angles rounded ; the antennae are rather shorter, and the 



