384 



NATURAL HISTORY OF ARTHROPODS. 



Fig. 464. — Necroph, 

 lus subferraneus. 



absent. While most of these beetles live upon carrion, attacking by preference decay- 

 ing animal matter, a few have mixed habits and attack decomposing and even living 

 vegetation, while some are known, when pressed by hunger, to eat 

 living insects, not sparing their own species. JLe2Jtinus testaceus has 

 been found in Normandy by Mr. A. Fauvel in the nests of mice, 

 where it is supposed to feed on fungi. Mr. M. Girard has described 

 an eyeless species, Scotocryptus meliponce, from the nests of bees 

 (Melipona sctUellaris) in Brazil. Other eyeless forms (species of 

 Leptoderus), together with others (Adelops) that have very small 

 eyes, inhabit caves. In Arimimelus lebioides, from Japan, there is 

 an ocellus behind each compound eye. Some species of Galops in- 

 habit ants' nests. Species of Necrophorus stridulate. Many kinds 

 of Silphidse emit nauseous fluids, and their odor remains disagree- 

 able after years of drying in the collection. The species of this family, even in 

 the larval state, are very sensitive to odors, and are guided by their olfactory organs 

 to their food. 



The larvas of Silphidae have six legs, four-jointed antennas, strong bidentate mandi- 

 bles, three-jointed maxillary and two-jointed labial palpi, and generally a two-jointed 

 appendage each side of the anus. The ocelli vary in number, there being none in 

 Adelops and Anisotoma, two pairs in Agathidmm, and six pairs in Silpha and most 

 other genera. The larvae generally inhabit the same places and devour the same food 

 as do the imagos. 



Among some of the smaller sjtecies, which have the posterior coxse simple and the 

 anterior coxal cavities closed behind, those of Anistoma and Agathidium live in 

 fungi. 



Adelops, a word which signifies inconspicuous-eyed, is the name of a genus of 

 beetles which have been erroneously said to be eyeless. The species have slender 

 antennae, which are longer than the head and thorax, and a prominently carinate me- 

 sosternum. A. hirtus was first described from a specimen taken under a stone in 

 Mammoth Cave, Kentucky, and has since been found in other caves of the same 

 region. It is oval in form, grayish brown, and about 0.1 of an inch long. Its larva 

 and pupa have been described by Mr. H. G. Hubbard. 



The genera Silpha and Necrophorus include the largest and best-known species 

 of this family. In Silpha the form is flat, oval, or nearly so ; the antennae are eleven- 

 jointed, and gradually increase in size from the middle toward the 

 apex, or are slender and scarcely clubbed. *S'. umericana (sometimes 

 called S.peltata) is about 0.7 of an inch long. Its prothorax is yel- 

 low with a dull black median spot, its elytra are brownish black and 

 rough. S. atrata, which is said to have been introduced into America 

 from Europe, is about 0.4 of an inch long, black, densely punctured, 

 and with elevated elytral ridges, between which the punctures are 

 irregularly arranged. Its antennae are nearly filiform. Another 

 species, found both in Europe and North America, is S. lapponica, 

 which is about the same size as S. atrata, but has a gray jjubescent 

 prothorax and dull-black elytra, the latter roughened by ridges with single rows of 

 ii-regular protuberances between them. In New England S. incequalis and S. nove- 

 boracensis are common species. Both are a little larger than S. atrata, and have 

 the prothorax and elytra longitudinally wavy; the former is entirely black, the 



Fig. 455. — Sifp/in 

 americana. 



