XYLOPHILIDiE. — ANTH1CIDJE, 



173 



under bark, in stumps, or, in hot weather, on flowers and 

 shrubs. 



The larvae of Pyrochroa are elongate, parallel-sided, flat insects, 

 varying a little in the shape of the thoracic segments and the 

 anal appendages ; the head is very large and the penultimate 

 segment is very long ; the apical segment is strongly turned 

 up (almost at right angles) and terminates in two strong chitinous 

 spines. They occur under bark of various trees or in decaying 

 stumps. 



Family 87. XYLOPHILID.E. 



Closely allied to the Authicida?, and agreeing with that family in 

 most of its characters, but differing in the extremely small and simple 

 •penultimate joint of the tarsi, which is concealed between the lobes of 

 the antepemdtimate joint, so that the tarsi at first sight appear to be 

 4-, 4-, 3 -jointed ; and also in the fact that the first two segments 

 of the abdomen are connate, and that the posterior coxce are more or 

 less approximate. 



This family contains about 150 or 200 species which are united 

 by several authors with the Anthicid^e. They are very widely 

 distributed in most parts of the world, and will probably prove to 

 be very numerous; only twenty-nine species of Xylophilus are 

 enumerated in the Munich Catalogue, but Mr. Champion has 

 described no less than thirty-six from Central America, two-thirds 

 of which are represented by single specimens only ; the greater 

 part of them were found in oak-woods at elevations of from 

 3000 to 8000 feet, and a considerable number were beaten from 

 decaying branches of oak. The European species are found in 

 old trees, dead hedges, and occasionally on flowers ; the earlier 

 stages are, apparently, found in rotten wood. The genera Macra- 

 tria and Xylophilus are represented by a few species from the 

 Indian region, especially Ceylon. Many of them, at first sight, 

 might be mistaken for small Axobiidje, while others are like 

 Anthicus; from the latter they may be distinguished by the 

 characters given above, and by the more or less emarginate, hairy, 

 and coarsely granulated eyes. 



Family 88. ANTHICIILE. 



Small insects, many of them in general appearance resemblinq 

 ants ; head rather large, defiexed, constricted at some distance behind 

 the eyes, which are elliptical and entire ; antennae eleven-jointed 

 inserted at the sides of the front; neck very small; prothorax 

 narrower at the base than the elytra, with the sides not margined ; 

 anterior coxce conical, prominent and contiguous, cavities open behind, 



