3 ERMESXES* 
Genus III — Bermejles. 
W E are now come to a tribe of beetles, much inferior 
in fize to thofe already mentioned ; but of fuperior beau- 
ty. Many of the infefts belonging to this genus exhibit 
a variety of the richeft colouring that flows even from 
nature’s pencil. They are near neighbours of man, and 
often troublefome companions : One fpecies of the larda- 
rius is deftructive to meat, and is very difficult to pre- 
vent from entering into the repolitorics of the cook. It 
is a ftill more unwelcome intruder into the cabinets of 
the curious ; being very deftruCtive to birds, infefts, and 
other fubjccts of natural hiftory, in a ftate of preferva- 
tion. Arfenic is the moft certain preventative againil its 
depredations there. Many fpecies of this family, as well 
as their larva;, inhabit dried {kins, the bark of trees, rot- 
ten wood, feeds, flowers, and the carcafes of dead ani- 
mals. 
The antennae of the infers of this tribe principally ex- 
hibit their generic characters. They terminate in a per- 
foliated club of aji oval form, and divided into different 
plates or leaves, which feem to be united together by a 
fmall ftalk. The thorax is of a convex form, and {light- 
ly margined : the head is bent inward, and, as it were^ 
concealed in the thorax *. 
* Syftema Nat. p. 561. 
