1308 FAjrrr;^' i.xi. — MOKnELLiD.T?. 



Family LXI. M(1TIDBLLID^.. 

 The Tumbling Flower Beetles. 



This f.iiiiily includes a large number of small, wedge-shaped 

 beetles having? the body arched, the head bent downward and the 

 abdomen usually prolonged into a style or pointed process. The 

 hind legs are, in most species, very long and stout, fitted for leap- 

 ing; the antennae long and slender and the thorax is as wide at base 

 as the elytra. The body is densely covered with fine silky hairs, 

 usually black, but often very prettily spotted or banded with yel- 

 low or silvery hues. The adults occur on flowers or on dead trees 

 and are very active, flying and lunning with great rapidity and in 

 the net or beating umbrella jumping and tumbling about in gro- 

 tesque manner in their efforts to escape. The larvw live in old wood 

 or in the pith of plants, and those of some species are said to be 

 carnivorous in habit, feeding upon the young of Lepidoptera and 

 Diptera which they find in the plant stems. The name MonlcUa, 

 that of the ty])ical genus, is from the Latin mordere or ' ' bite. ' ' 



In addition to the characters mentioned the Mordellidaa have the 

 maxillary palpi 4-jointed, the last joint variable in form ; head ver- 

 tical and applied closely to the prosternam in repose, suddenly con- 

 stricted immediately behind the eyes; antennae slender, 11-jointed, 

 inserted at the sides of the front ; thorax strongly narrowed in front, 

 its lateral suture distinct; elytra narrowed behind, not truncate, 

 leaving exposed the tip of the abdomen, the latter with five or six 

 ventral segments; front legs short, hind onas usually long; front 

 coxae large, conical, contiguous, without troehantins, the cavities 

 open behind ; hind eoxas flat, contiguous, very large in most of our 

 species; hind tarsi long, compressed; t.irsal claws either simple or 

 cleft to the base, with the upper portion comb-toothed in most 

 species. 



The principal literature treating of the iNoi'th American forms is 

 as follows: 



Ler'o)(ie.— "Synopsis of the iMord;-llitlie of the ifnited Stat(>s," 

 ill Proc. Phil. Acad. Nat. Sci., XIV, lS(i2, 48-.51. 



Hinilli. Jolin B.—"\ S\nopsis of the MorcK-llida' of the United 

 States," ill Trans. Ainer. Entom. Soc., X, ISS-J 73-100 Pis 

 T-III. 



Alwiit 120 members of the family are known from North Amer- 

 icii. These are distribuled among sev<'n gmcra, six of which are 

 1 ('presented in the Rtite. One of the principal characters used in 



