NECROPHAGA AND THEIR ALLIES. 
119 
the old moist husks of seed potatoes, when the new 
crop has been dug in the summer. 
The Sphseritina have only five free ventral segments 
to the abdomen ; the metallic, Hister-\\ke Sphcerites 
has the basal joint of the antennae long, and is found 
in the north of Scotland, in dead animals, &c. 
In the Silphina the anterior coxal cavities are open 
behind, and the abdomen has six free ventral seg- 
ments. They comprise the well-known " Sexton ” or 
“ Burying ” beetles, found in dead animals ; which, 
if not too large, they contrive to drag beneath the 
ground, several individuals of both sexes often uniting 
in the work, and the females laying their eggs in the 
buried carcase. Some of them are also occasionally 
found in fungi, or in decaying fish ou the sea-shore. 
They belong to the genus Necrophorus, the largest in 
size of all the section, and have strongly-clubbed ten- 
jointed antennae, being sometimes black, but often 
adorned with orange-coloured bands (Plate VI., Fig. 1, 
N. mortuorum). They fly strongly, smell somewhat 
of musk, and exude a fetid black fluid from the 
mouth. Their larvae, also carrion-feeders, have cylin- 
drical fleshy bodies and weak legs. 
The Silphse are smaller, flat, with less strongly- 
clubbed eleven-jointed antennas, and broad, flat, 
horny, active, strong-legged larvae. 
The ScYDMiENiD.E are all extremely small, and more 
or less pubescent, living in vegetable refuse and muck- 
heaps : the largest, Eumicrus tarsatus (Plate VI., Fig. 
2) is common in cucumber frames, &c. They are ap- 
terous, with the elytra covering the abdomen (which 
has six segments); the tarsi five-jointed; the coxae 
m 
