DERMESTIDJE. — BYRRHIDiE. 



123 



few have been as yet recorded from India ; one or two species of 

 Attagenus and Tri 'nodes have been described from Ceylon, and 

 Motschulsky described the genera Mihriostoma and Orphinus from 

 India and Burma respectively. 



I. Head without frontal ocellus; mouth-parts not 



covered Dermestiisle. 



II. Head with frontal ocellus. 



i. Mouth-parts not covered ; anterior coxse strongly 



projecting Attageninje. 



ii. Mouth-parts covered by the presternum or by the 



coxse and trochanters of the front legs. 



1 . Prosternum horizontal ; hind coxse not reaching 



the side margins of the body, which is hairy 

 or squamose. 



A. Form oblong ; posterior coxae contiguous ; 



upper surface with recumbent hairs Megatomin^j. 



B. Form short, round or short-oval ; posterior 



coxse not contiguous. 



a. Upper surface squamose ; head with deep 



antennal grooves beneath A nthrenin^e. 



b. Upper surface with stiff upright bristles ; 



head without antennal grooves Trinodin^. 



2. Prosternum vertical ; hind coxae reaching the 



side margins of the body ; upper surface 



bare and glabrous Orphilin^. 



Family 49. BYKRHIDiE. 



Form oval or round oval, very strongly convex; head luith the 

 forehead vertical and the mouth-parts mostly concealed by the pro- 

 sternum ; antennce inserted under the edge of the forehead between the 

 eyes, short, eleven-jointed with a more or less pronounced club ; anterior 

 coxal cavities open behind; anterior coxce transverse, not exserted ; 

 pronotum at base as broad as elytra; legs short, retractile ; femora 

 with a furrow for the reception of the tibice ; tarsi jive-joint ed, rarely 

 four-jointed ; abdomen with five free ventral segments. 



The members of this family are often called Pill-beetles from the 

 fact that the legs and autennse can be completely adpressed to the 

 body ; when the insects are alarmed they remain motionless and, 

 as they often very closely resemble their surroundings, they thus 

 escape ; they are also to a certain extent protected by their hard 

 integuments. The larvse of Byrrhus are cylindrical and soft with 

 a broad short head, and a very large and broad chitinous and 

 somewhat strongly sculptured pronotum, which is much longer 

 than the succeeding segments ; towards the apex the segments 

 again increase in size, the apical one being almost as large as the 

 pronotal, and bearing two retractile pseudopods. 



The habits of the family are but little known. Byrrhus is a 



