Clerid^e. INSECTS. Ptinid^. 
22a 
observation would see both male and female Drilus 
flavescens emerge from the shells. 
may be observed covering the ground under any small 
piece of animal matter which has been overlooked by 
Family — TELEPHORID.;® {Soldiers and Sailors). 
In this country every boy knows the insects found 
so commonly on flowers in summer-time, and called 
“ Soldiers and Sailors.” Some of them have pale, 
soft elytra, with reddish thorax and legs, while others 
are black, but equally soft and equally agile. They 
have long antennae, and are called by naturalists Tele- 
phoridce. There are tifty-six British species. 
In Venezuela Mr. David Dyson discovered a curious 
insect of the family, 
which was lately 
described by a 
German entomolo- 
gist.* The male 
(fig. 107) has very 
short elytra, and the 
last joints of the 
antennae are curi- 
ously elongated and 
twisted. In the 
female the elytra 
are longer, and the 
antennae are simple. 
These antennae are 
used by the male for 
holding his partner. 
The wings are very 
ample, and the legs 
are long andtermin- 
ate in simple claws ; 
the third joint of all 
the palpi is hatchet- 
shaped. In a pretty 
group of green and 
red beetles {Malthini) the third joint of the palpi is ovate, 
and the claws are one-toothed. 
Lobetiis torticollis. 
Family— CLERID.®. 
A large and very showy family (Plate 2, fig. 1) repre- 
sents one of them — the Tillus mutillarius. The 
larvae seem to be carnivorous. Fig. 108 shows the 
larva of Opilus domesticus. The Bi'azilian and Australian 
species are often large, and almost always showy. So 
are many from the Eastern islands, whence come Tenerus, 
Omadius, Stigmatium, and other curious genera. 
Fig. 109 is Latreille’s beetle {Necrohia ruficollis). 
The Necrohia violacea is most extensively dis- 
tributed. Mr. Le Conte observes that it “ appears 
to increase in numbers the farther it is removed from 
the haunts of men ; in the barren regions adjoining the 
Rocky Mountains, where insects reign in almost undis- 
puted mastery uncheeked by scarce a single foe, it 
* Lobetus torhcoZfes— Kiesenwetter, Monographie der Malthi- 
nen; Linnsea Entomologica, vii., 244, t. 1, fig. 1. The beetle 
is testaceous; the head, excepting the mouth, the joints of the 
antennse from the second to the eighth, the wings, and the legs 
are black • the coxae and the bases of the femora are testaceous. 
Its length is three lines and a half. 
f Annals of the Lyceum of Nat. Hist., vol. iv., p. 162. 
the wolves and ravens, or which has defied the power 
of their teeth and beaks. 
Family— LYMEXYLONID^. 
There are but two British species of this family, which 
has very curiously developed palpi. The species of 
Atractocerus, a long African genus, are allied to them. 
Kirby and Spence quote the Lymexyloii navale, a 
British insect, as a striking exemplification of the 
utility of entomological know- 
ledge. In the royal dock-yards 
of Sweden great quantities of 
oak-timber were destroyed by 
the ravages of an insect. The 
king desired Linnseus to inves- 
tigate the matter, which the 
great naturalist did; and finding 
it was this beetle whieh caused 
the destruction, he suggested 
that the oak-timber should be 
immersed in water during the 
time of the metamorphosis of the 
beetle and its time for depositing 
its eggs. This suggestion was 
adopted, and it proved a remedy 
which effectualy secured the timber from its future 
attacks. Yig. 110 Lymexylon navale. 
Family — PTlNIDiE. 
A family of little, generally hairy beetles, with long 
antennae and bodies, whose larvae drill holes in furni- 
ture, old cabinets, and all sorts of vegetable substances 
if dry. 
The Ptinus fur (Coleoptera, Plate 3, fig. 21), and 
other species are very common, and often do a great 
deal of mischief in a small way. 
My friend, Mr. W. Horn, drug-grinder, of Belitha 
Villas, Barnsbury, brought me lately many specimens 
of ginger root from the East Indies, perforated by the 
larvae of the small ptinidous genus Lasioderma. The 
ginger is so destroyed by this small bettle {L. testa- 
ceum) that the importers calculate their loss annually 
at upwards of £3000 on ginger from Cochin and Calicut 
alone. 
There are thirty-three species of Ptinidae recorded 
