184 
BRITISH BEETLES. 
boleti, and other fungi, especially when tho lattor are 
attached to trees. The males are known either by 
tho larger size of their mandibles, or by the presence 
of certain little horn-like tubercles on tho head or 
anterior margin of the prothorax. 
Their elongate, cylindrical, curved, fleshy larvae are 
slightly hairy, with two recurvod hooks at the apex on 
the upper side, and appear to resemble those of Orypto- 
phagus ; and the pupa has two slight spines at its lower 
extremity. 
In Rliopalodontus and Gift the antennae have ten 
joints ; tho former having the tibiae dilated at their 
outer extremity and distinctly toothed, the second 
joint of tho antennao much longer than tho third, 
the head toothed iu the middle, and tho last joint of 
the maxillary palpi more oblong. In Ennearthron 
there aro (as its name imports) nine joints to tho 
antennae, and in tho equally suggestivo Octotemnus but 
eight: the latter has no tubercles on tho head or 
thorax in the male, and the tibiae are slightly toothed 
outside. 
The largest and commonest of the family is Cis boleti, 
in which the thorax has several irregular depressions; 
it is found in damp fungoid wood, or tho small greenish 
laminated boleti on tho bark of rotten trees. As in all 
the rest, individuals of different degrees of maturity are 
often found associated. They are all difficult to set, 
owing to their small size, and the shortness, retractile 
structure, and weak articulation of their limbs, and 
must not be kept long in laurel, otherwise their mem- 
bers part company. 
The position of the Sphindid/e is doubtful, and it 
is quite possiblo that they may in time be classed with 
