236 
BRITISH BEETLES. 
The thorax is very strongly arched on each side of the 
hinder margin, and produced in the middle ; the hooks 
of the tarsi are bifid ; and the third and following 
joints of the antennae in the male are divided into 
double fan-like rays. 
The perfect insect is found (according to Lacordaire) 
sometimes on flowers, or at the exuding sap of trees, 
and I possess a specimen taken under bark, in Scot- 
land ; but its real home is in the nests of the common 
Wasps ( Vespa rufa and vulgaris), in which, also, it 
undergoes its transformations; and it has been ob- 
served by Mr. S. Stone (who has for a long period 
accurately observed the economy of certain coleopte- 
rous parasites on Hymenoptera) that the larger larvae 
(from which the females are produced) are found with, 
and feed on, the female wasp grubs, — the fact, but not 
the object of such association having been long before 
known. 
The Anthicid;e present a certain external resemblance 
to some of the smaller Geodephaga : they are delicately 
built, of slender shape ; with thin legs and antennas, 
the penultimate joint of the tarsi bilobed, the head 
suddenly contracted into a narrow neck, the eyes 
entire, and the hinder coxas separated by a projection 
of the abdomen. 
Notoxus monoccros (Plate X., Fig. 5), an elegant, 
downy, little species, very variable in its markings, 
occurs plentifully in sandy places, both at the seaside 
and inland. Its thorax is produced in the middle into 
a stout horn, which projects over the head (Fig. 5 a). 
The species of Anthicus are all very small, and have 
been fancifully compared to ants, both on account of 
their colours, small size, shape, and activity. They 
