NECROPHAGA AND THEIR ALLIES. 
145 
to the tarsi; and the elytra covering the abdomen, 
which has five segments, the apical one only being 
free. The species are all depressed, broad, and 
clothed with short thick silky pubescence, which pro- 
bably keeps the water near which they live away from 
their body. Their head is very robust, and the pro- 
thorax capable of considerable freedom of motion. 
They live in mud-banks, &c., at the sides of rivers aud 
ponds, and will frequently come up out of the damp 
mud in great numbers on the collector treading about ; 
and if the sun be shining, will fly readily. Some 
species forrq galleries under stones, &c., near semi- 
saline waters, aud most of them appear to be 
gregarious. 
All those found in Britain have been described by 
Mr. G. R. Waterhouse, in the Trans. Eut. Soc., vol. v. 
n. s., part 4, 1859. 
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