SCYDM^NID^. 



439 



^^ ^w v ^ 



The larvae are crustaceous, flattened, with the sides of the 

 body often serrated, bkick, and of a fetid odor. They undergo 

 their transformations in an oval cocoon. In JS'eci'ojyhortis (Fig. 

 346, N. Americanns Oliv.) the antennae have ten apparent 

 joints, and the rounded club is 

 four-jointed. The genus Silpha, of 

 which S. Lapponica Herbst (Fig. 

 383, larva fully grown ; 384, young, - 

 from Labrador) is a common spe- 

 cies, differs in the third joint of 

 the antenna being no longer than 

 the second, but shorter than the 

 first. In NecropMlus the third joint 

 is as long as the first. N. Surina- 

 mensis Fabr. has a yellow thorax 

 with a central m-egular black spot. 

 Catops and its allies live in fungi, 

 carrion and ants' nests, and are 

 small, black, oval insects. The 

 eyeless Adelops Mrtus Tellk. is blind, wanting the 

 eyes, and is found in Mammoth Cave. Anisotoma and allies, 

 with eleven-jointed antennae, are oval and sometimes hemis- 

 pherical, and capable of being rolled up into a ball. 

 They are of small size and found in fungi, or under 

 the bark of dead trees. Agatliidium (Fig. 385, larva 

 of the European A. seminulum) has the club of the 

 antennae three-jointed. Clamhus and allies comprise 

 exceedingly minute species, found in decaying vege- 

 table matter. 



An aberrant form is Brathinus, two species of which, 

 B. nitidus Lee. and B. varicornis Lee, have been 

 found from Lake Superior to Nova Scotia, about the ^'^- ^^^■ 

 roots of grass in damp places. According to Leconte, they are 

 small shiny insects of graceful form, and distinguished by the 

 prominent middle coxae. 



ScYDM^NiD^ Leach. The species of this small group differ 

 from the PselapJiidce to which they are closely allied by their 

 long elytra and distant conical posterior coxae. They are mi- 



