438 COLEOPTERA. 



seize their food by throwing their heads back and extending 

 the jaws. When handled "it becomes phicid, and emits a 

 blackish fetid fluid from the mouth accompanied by a slight 

 noise." The larva of the European H. piceus Linn. (Fig. 382) 

 becomes mature in two months, then ascends to the bank, 

 forms an oval cocoon, and transforms to a beetle in about 

 forty daj^s. 



In the genus Spercheus (S. tessellatus Melsheimer) the mid- 

 dle and hind tarsal joints are equal in length. The females of 

 the European species carry the eggs in a silken nidus beneath 

 their abdomens, and as the eggs are hatched ever}^ eight or ten 

 days, others are laid to keep up the suppl3\ 



HydropMlus is large, oval, olive black, with smooth elytra, 

 and the prosternum is small, with a long spine on the meta- 

 sternum. In the larvae the lateral appendages of the abdomen 

 are soft, flexible, ciliated, and assist in buoying up the heavy 

 fleshy body (for which purpose the antennjE are ciliated) but 

 thej- do not serve for respiration, as in Berosus, another 

 European genus of this family. (Schiodte.) H. triangularis 

 Sa}^ is a large pitchy black species. In Hydrohius the last 

 joint of the maxillary palpi is longer than the preceding. 

 Spliceridiuni and its allies are characterized hx an ovate, con- 

 vex or hemispherical form, being black, with the elj-tra often 

 spotted or margined with yellow, and with ten rows of punc- 

 tures or strife, though in Cydonotum there are no strise. In 

 Cercyon the mesosternum is not produced, and the prosternum 

 is keeled over. "In the larvae of Cercyon and Sphceridixim^ 

 which represent the Ilydrophiline ty^& modified for life on dry 

 land (though in humid places) we find neither lateral abdomi- 

 nal appendages nor even true feet, the animal wriggling its 

 way through the debris amongst which it lives, whilst the last 

 abdominal segment is the largest of all and is often armed 

 with hooks." (Schiodte.) 



SiLPHiD.E Leach. The Carrion or Sexton beetles are useful 

 in burning decaying bodies, in which they lay their eggs. By 

 living in the vicinitj^ of carrion, and by their xQvy clavate 

 antennae and flattened head and body, and the black nauseous 

 fluid t\xej give out, the common species are readily recognized. 



