COLEOPTEKA OE BEETLES. 165 



for the white larvse and devour them wholesale. Dressings 

 of vaporite soon kill them. The encouragement of birds such 

 as rooks and starlings is advisable. 



The Necrophaga (or Clavicornia) are mostly " scavengers," 

 feeding on decaying animal and vegetable refuse. One family, 

 the Dermesiidce, are very destructive : they are small grey or 

 brown beetles, that do much damage to manufactured animal 

 matters in their larval condition. A small dark-brown beetle 

 with fawn-coloured bases to the elytra and three dark spots, 

 known as the Bacon Beetle (Dermestes lardarius), does much 

 mischief in its curious larval state. The larva is dark-brown, 

 and covered with tufts of hair, which are placed regularly on 

 the margins of each segment. They feed upon furs, hides, 

 hams, and bacon. 



The curious Sexton or Burying Beetles (Necrophorus) belong 

 to the family Silphidie, which also contains the injurious Beet 

 Carrion-beetle (Silplia opaca). Some of the commoner Necro- 

 phori may be found everywhere, pretty beetles with red and 

 black elytra. They bury any dead bird or small mammal 

 they find, as deep as they can in the soil, and there deposit 

 their eggs. The larvse feed off the decaying body, and thus 

 rid the air of impure gases. 



The Beet Cakmon-beetles (Silpha opaca and 

 S. athata). 



These beetles have become a regular mangold pest. Origin- 

 ally they were scavengers, feeding on dead carcasses of birds 

 and mammals as they lay on the ground ; but the larvee now 

 feed upon the leaves of the mangold, and have done so since 

 at least 1844, when Curtis reports an attack of these beetles, 

 since which time numerous attacks have been reported. There 

 are two species that do the harm — S. opaca and S. atrata ; the 

 former is very destructive to sugar-beets in France. S. opaca 



