380 NATURAL HISTORY OF ARTHROPODS. 



The Cktptophagidje are beetles of small size, and usually of short, convex form. 

 On account of their minuteness, these beetles attract little popular attention. Some 

 of the species feed on fungi, some live in ants' nests, and others eat plants. The larv» 

 of Cryptophagits cellaris, a European species, live in the cells of wild bees {Anthophora 

 retusa) upon the excrement of the young bee-larvse. C. quercinus, also a European 

 species, lives in the nests of ants in oak trees. Professor A. S. Packard writes that he 

 has found the larvae of Anther ophagus ochraceus in the nests of humble-bees {Bombus) 

 during July and August. It is likely that the species of AntJierophagus, which are 

 frequenters of flowers, are carried into bees' nests by the bees themselves, since Perris 

 has observed a Bombus montanus, to tlie antenna of which an A. nigricornis firmly 

 clung. The genus Aiomaria is made up of extremely small beetles, as its name 

 indicates ; these are oval, convex, and pubescent. Several species of Atomaria are 

 myrmecophilous, others are destructive to plants. A. linearis has been known to ruin 

 young beet-plants. 



The family CucuJiDis includes a small number of Coleoptera which are remarkable 

 for their excess! \'ely flattened, usually elongate form. Their abdomen has five free 

 ventral segments which are equal in length ; the antenu® are eleven-jointed and often 

 enlarged apically ; the prothorax is usually narrower than the elytra. The larvae are 

 elongated and depressed ; some have five ocelli upon each side of the head, others 

 none. The feet have each a simple claw. The tip of the abdomen is armed with a 

 pair of curved horns. Both larv£e and beetles are found beneath the bark of decaying 

 trees ; some of them (Brostomis) live in society with ants ; the larva of one species, at 

 least, is carnivorous. 



The species of Brontes have striate elytra, the sides of the prothorax serrate, and 

 its anterior angles prolonged, the antennas with the first joint elongated, the anterior 

 coxal cavities open behind, and the maxillae exposed. B. dubius is 

 about 0.25 of an inch long, dark brown in color, and is not rare under 

 bark of dead chestnut trees in the northeastern United States. In 

 Europe B. planatus is found under bark of dead oaks. 



In the genus Cucujus the hind-tarsi are only four-jointed in the 

 males ; the prosternum is narrow, and the hind-angles of the head are 

 prominent. C. clavipes is scarlet above, with black antennae and eyes ; 

 Fig. 442.— Ouciyus its upper surface is finely punctate. I have found this species under 



clavipes. , "^ ^ ^ 



deoaymg butternut bark, where its larva probably lives. 



Catogenus differs from Cucujus in having its maxillse covered by corneous plates, 

 which are broad and rounded in front ; the first tarsal joint is short. C nifus, which 

 varies from 0.25 to 0.50 of an inch long, is deep brown, and is found in the eastern 

 United States. In parts of Connecticut it is common beneath the loose bark of the 

 trunks of hickory trees, and I have reared its larva, which fed upon a pupa of Ela- 

 lihidion p)arallelum., a borer in hickory. 



In Sylvanus the anterior coxal cavities are closed behind, the tarsi without lobes 

 beneath, the outer three joints of the aptennae are enlarged. jS. surinamensis breeds 

 in grain, and, like most grain insects, has become widely distributed over the globe. 

 It is dark brown, marked with yellowish pubescence, and is only about 0.1 of an inch 

 long. 



The family CoLYDiiDiE comprises quite a number of very small, elongate, mostly 

 cylindrical beetles, of little popular interest on account of their small size. Some of 

 them live in fungi in the ground, or under bark of trees ; a few are myrmecophilous. 



