BEETLES. 387 



The larvse of this family usually live in similar places to those frequented by the 

 images ; and, while their habits and life histoiy have been little studied in comparison 

 with other families of equal size, there is great and interesting variety in their habits. 

 Some of the species live under bark, others eat fungi, many live about decaying plants 

 and the excrements of higher animals. Quite a number are found in the nests of ants, 

 but the exact relations which they hold to the ants are not yet determined. Mr. E. A. 

 Schwarz has found species of Staphylinidae in Texas in the nests of white ants ( IW- 

 mes), which, as will be recollected, are not Hymenoptera, as are the true ants. Quedius 

 dilatatus breeds in hornets' nests in Europe, and will also eat honey. Microglotta 

 nidicola frequents the nests of bank-swallows in France, and Mr. P. S. Sprague dis- 

 covered that Aleochara anthomyim, in the eastern United States, was parasitic in the 

 cabbage-maggot (larva of Anthontyia brassicoe). Heeger found that Gyraphoena 

 manca oviposits on leaves of plants. The larvse, when first hatched, eat the eggs of 

 mites, and later devour the larval mites themselves, finally pupating in moist earth. 

 In a termitophilous South American genus the abdomen is soft, very much enlarged, 

 and thrown upwards and forwards so as to hide the thorax. The eggs of these curious 

 insects develop into larvae, while still in the abdomen of the female, a fact first discov- 

 ered by the late Professor Schiodte of Copenhagen, who, on account of its viviparous 

 habits, named the genus C'orotoca. 



The rather robust species of Oxyporus are found in fungi. The head is large, the 

 eyes small, the long mandibles are not dentate, and the abdomen is strongly margined. 

 0. vittatus is about 0.25 of an inch long, and black above with a light-brown longitu- 

 dinal stripe covering nearly the whole of each elytron, and the margin of the abdo- 

 men is brown. It is common in the northeastern United States on species of Agaricus. 

 The species of Pcederus are combinations of red and deep metallic blue in coloration, 

 and are found under chips .and stones in moist places. In P. riparius the head, elytra, 

 and tip of the abdomen are blue, the rest of the insect for the most part red. It is 

 about 0.3 of an inch long, and inhabits both Europe and America. In similar moist 

 localities, as those in which Pwderus is found, live numerous species of Stenus, a 

 genus of small Staphylinidse, which have very prominent eyes, a broad head, narrow 

 prothorax, and wide subquadrate elytra. 



The largest species of this family are members of the tribe Staphylinini. The 

 genus Staphylinus contains species often of considerable size. S. maculosus, common 

 in the eastern part of North Amei'ican, is from 0.7 to 1 inch long, is dull brown, 

 densely punctate, and the tip of the pubescent abdomen is lighter brown. Of about the 

 same size, and found in the same localities, is Leistotrophus cingiilatus. This species 

 is brown, speckled with brownish-black spots, and the apical portion of its abdomen is 

 clothed with golden pubescence. It differs generically from Staphylinus in having 

 the fourth joint of the maxillary palpi shoi-ter than the third. Differing from the 

 last-mentioned genera, in having the thorax without punctures, are the genera Creo- 

 pMlus and Thinopinus. C. villosus, the only North American species, is widely dis- 

 tributed over the country. It is from 0.5 to 0.9 of an inch long, of a black gi-ound 

 color marked with gray pubescence, especially upon the margins of the abdo- 

 men and in a band across the elytra. C. maxiUosus, from Europe, is a very similar 

 species to C. villosus. Thinopinus pictus, which lives below high-water mark on 

 the shores of the Pacific Ocean from Alaska to southern California, is from 0.55 

 to 0.75 of an inch long, of a yellowish-brown color, spotted above with dark brown 

 and black. 



