142 
BRITISH BEETLES. 
exserted ; the tarsi five-jointed, and the elytra cover- 
ing the abdomen. All of them, except .Dermestes, 
have a smooth eye-like spot on the forehead. 
They are found in dry dead animals and skins for 
the most part, the “ bacon beetle,” Dermestes Inr- 
darius, being well known as a ravager ; some, however, 
occur in flowers. They partially retract the legs, and 
counterfeit death on being frightened. The larva of 
Dermestes is long, with leathery plates on the upper 
side, which is clothed with long scattered hairs ; and 
there is a pair of short spines on the last segment, 
which has also a fleshy pi-otuberance on the under side. 
The dry cast skins of this larva may often be seen. 
The Byrrhid/E are conspicuous from their faculty of 
packing up their limbs ; the head (except in Nosoden- 
dron, which is exceedingly doubtful as British) being 
retractile, and immersed in the thorax, against the 
sides of which the antennae are placed ; the tarsi are 
usually received into the tibiae, which, again, pack 
tight to the femora, the entire legs fitting into exca- 
vations on the lower side of the body. The antennae 
have eleven joints, except in Limnichus and Aspid/i- 
phorus , which have only ten ; the parts of the mouth 
are not prominent, the ligula having no paraglossse, 
and the maxillae not being toothed. The species are 
usually oval and very convex, clothed with short silky 
pubescence, and sometimes apterous. The Byrrhi (B. 
J'asciatus, Plate VII., Fig. 3) are not uncommon in 
sandy places, &c., iu the spring : the other genera are 
principally found in moss, and under stones on sandy 
banks. They simulate death readily, and are hard to 
set, owing to their retractile limbs. 
Asplddpihoriis ( Conipora , Thoms.), — left with doubt 
