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brown or dull black beetle, thickly covered with tubercles, so that it looks like a bit of 

 rotten bark or dry earth, and easily escapes detection when it drops to the ground with 

 its legs tightly folded. The male has two horn-like projections upon the thorax and also 

 two minute ones on the front of his head. Those on the thorax are more than an eighth 

 of an inch long, flattened inwardly at the end, and fringed with a light pubescence. The 

 beetles are found abundantly during the summer and autumn, feeding upon the large 

 woody fungi which spring from stumps and decaying trees. "While the beetles are found 

 imbedded in holes gnawed in the surface, the larvae in different stages will be obtained 

 by breaking apart the fungus, in which they burrow out cells until the whole mass is full 

 of holes and tunnels tilled with excrement. The grubs are long and cylindrical, attain- 

 ing when full grown a length of three-quarters of an inch, and have two spines on the 

 last segment, as have the larvae of many species of this family. 



Diaperis hydni is a small stout beetle, a quarter of an inch long, common in fungus 

 growing upon old and decaying beech trees (such as are infested by Dicer ca divaricata 

 and Tremex columha). It is very smooth and glossy, and is jet black with the exception 

 of the elytra. These are light brown, and are n arked by two small black dots just 

 behind the thorax and by two larger ones midway between these and the tip. They are 

 also ornamented by lines of minute punctures, hardly visible to the naked eye, and not 

 interrupting the glistening appearance of the beetle. 



Hoplocephala hicornis is a little dark greenish beetle, found in great numbers in the 

 dry leathery fungus which grows, like overlapping scales, on hardwood stumps. Although 

 this beetle is less than one-fifth of an inch long, the male may be easily distinguished by 

 the two little spines or horns which he bears on his head, and from which the species 

 derives its name. They soon reduce the dry fungus to a white powdery state. 



Mycetophagus punctatus is abundant in the fresh, soft, white fungi which grow from 

 the bark of various trees, not in compact masses, but laminated or gilled beneath like 

 Toadstools. On giving the tree a smart tap, the beetles will shower down from between 

 the gills upon a beating net held below. They are nearly one-fourth of an inch long, and 

 are black, except the yellowish elytra, which are marked by a black spot surrounding the 

 scutel, a black band across near the tip, and two black spots midway between this band 

 and the thorax. Associated with them are generally found numbers of a smaller but 

 very similarly coloured species, M. flexuosus. 



Similar fungi will sometimes be found to contain a great many very slender little 

 white grubs, with a black head no larger than a pin-hole. I have seen them twisted 

 together in such lumps that the black heads seemed like some tiny mites creeping about 

 over the wriggling mass, in which the respective bodies were lost. These are the larvee 

 of Triplax thoracica, a reddish beetle, one-fifth of an inch long, with blue-black elytra^ 

 belonging, like the first beetle described, to the Erotylidce. 



Penthe obliqimta is a very active beetle, which scampers hastily away when disturbed 

 at its fungus feast or in its hiding-place under bark, and thus frequently eludes its dis- 

 coverer. It is of a deep dull black, only relieved by the reddish-yellow scutel and a 

 yellow apical joint to the antennae. The elytra are very densely and irregularly punc- 

 tured. This fine beetle is half an inch long and almost oval in shape. A rarer and 

 slightly larger, but not so handsome insect, is P. Pimelia^ which I have found under the 

 bark of old trees. It is of a dull brownish-black, and has the elytra more evenly and 

 less densely punctured. As it lacks the yellow scutel, it is easily distinguished from the 

 preceding species. 



Many Staphylinidce are found in the stalks of Toadstools and in other fungi, while 

 those of many other families resort to these productions either for an occasional meal or 

 for a life-long diet. Such are Cratoparis lunatus among the Weevils, and Onthophagus 

 hecate of the Scarabeans. To even enumerate these would require much space, but I 

 think I have already written enough to show that the young collector will find it profit- 

 able to search the different fungi for specimens, especially early and late in the year, 

 when other feeding grounds are unproductive. I might add that many insects in turn 

 fall victims to fungi. The house-fly is a familiar instance of this, and every fall we see 

 great numbers of them stick to our walls and windows, their bodies distended by the 

 fungus, which also spreads some distance around them. 



