490 



FAMILY XIII. — SCAPHIDTIDJE. 



VI. Ptinella Mots. 1845. (Diminutive of Ptinus.) 



Very small, elongate or oblong forms having the head large and 

 prominent; eyes often wanting in male: antenna? long and slender, 

 each joint ornamented with long hairs : thorax small, usually more 

 or less constricted at base ; elytra short, truncate, leaving five or six 

 joints of the long abdomen exposed; hind coxa 1 widely separated. 

 One of the three species listed\has been taken in the State. 



941 (2970). Utixella qlercus Lee. New Sp. X. Am. Col.. I. 1863. 03. 



Moderately elongate, narrow. Male pale yellow, female pale chestnut 

 brown : sparsely clothed with yellowish hairs. Eyes of female rather large, 

 those of male wanting. Thorax more than twice as wide as long, widest 

 before the middle, constricted near base, hind angles acute, surface alu- 

 taceous. Elytra shorter and rather narrower than head and thorax to- 

 gether, widest toward the apex; surface remotely asperate or roughly 

 granulate. Length .5-.G mm. 



One specimen taken by Dury while sifting dead leaves near Xew 

 Albany. Floyd County. May 25. A southern form, described 

 from Georgia. 



Family XIII. SCAPHIDIID.F. 

 The Shixixg Fungus Beetles. 



Small, oval, convex, very shining beetles which live in fungi, in 

 rotten wood, dead leaves, or beneath the bark of logs. But little is 

 known regarding their life history, although some of them are very 

 common in every piece of woodland. When exposed by removing 

 their cover of bark or other material, they either remain quiescent 

 or move rapidly with an uneven, skipping gait. The name of the 

 family is based upon that of the genus Scaphidium, a name meaning 

 "a, little skiff or boat." on account of the fancied resemblance in 

 form of the beetles to that of a boat, being thickest and arched in 

 the middle and narrowed toward each end. the head small and the 

 abdomen more or less conical and pointed. 



They have the mentum large, quadrate; palpi short, four- 

 jointed, the last joint conical; front of head contracted and pro- 

 longed into a short beak: antennae either hair-like or slightly cla- 

 vate. inserted- at the margin of the front ; thorax closely applied to 

 the after body; presternum not prolonged, the coxal cavities widely 

 open behind; elytra broadly truncate, not covering the tip of the 

 conical abdomen, which has six or- seven visible ventral segments. 

 The front coxa j are rather large, conical and contiguous; middle 



