170 
BRITISH BEETLES. 
(Plate IX., Fig. 1), Laving also a black mark on the 
suture ; it occurs at the roots of heath on Wimble- 
don Common, where it has also been taken copiously 
on the blossom of the nettle. 
They frequent grassy places, flowers, and the 
leaves of trees; some also being found in rotten 
wood, or under stones on river banks. 
Their larvaa are very like the common “ meal- 
worm,” being horny, slender, and elongate ; usually 
almost cylindrical, but sometimes more or less de- 
pressed. They have no eyes or labrum ; the maxillae 
and mentum are elongate and soldered together, with 
palpi which have respectively three and two joints ; 
the antennae are four-jointed and short ; the legs very 
short, robust, close together, and three-jointed ; and 
the apical segment usually larger and more horny than 
the rest, frequently with toothed projections, and pos- 
sessing an anal prolongation. They are found at the 
roots of plants (the common “ wire-worm ” being 
only too well known), or in the black rotten wood- 
mould of old trees, under bark, &c. ; and have 
frequently been known to destroy other subcortical 
larva3, not even sparing those of their own specios. 
One of our most abundant “ skipjacks ” is Athoiis 
hsemorrhoidalis, a long chestnut-brown beetle with a 
lighter-coloured abdomen, found in profusion on fern 
and young hazel in the spring. Ludius ferruginous, 
a very rare, broad, rather flat, dull-red species (called 
“the rusty gun-barrol ” by one of our best working 
collectors), is the largest wo possess; the little Crypto - 
hypni , found under stones on banks, being the 
smallest. The members of the latter genus appear to 
be gregarious : I have seen a dozen of C. dermestoides 
