LAND SCAVENGER-BEETLES. 
Indeed, in some of the families which are usually classed with the pen- 
tamerous clavicorns, both of the leading characters, the clubbed antenna* 
and the five-jointed tarsi, either partially or wholly fail. Some of these 
insects also depart widely in their habits from the scavengers proper, 
and might therefore very properly be separated as a tribe by themselves 
were it not for the absence of any very strongly marked community of 
characters. In order to guard against mistake we have thought it best 
to throw these exceptional families together, as a sub-tribe, under the 
title of sub-clavicornes. 
The tribe of land-scavengers may therefore be divided into two sub- 
tribes differing very considerably from each other, both in structure and 
habits, and which may be distinguished as follows : 
1st Sub-tribe. — Glavicornes, proper. Body more or less oval ; antenna* 
clavate or capitate ; usually three, sometimes more than three joints in 
the club; usually five joints in all the tarsi, or, at least, in the anterior 
ones ; subsist mostly upon animal or vegetable substances, in a state of 
decay. This division includes the families Silphid®, Scaptaidiid®, His- 
teridse, Nitidulid®, Dermestkhe, Mycetophagid®, Cryptophagid®., 
Byrrhidse, Anisotomid®, Phalaerid®, Trichopterigid® and Scydmenid®. 
2d Sub-tribe. — Sub-clavicornes. Body more or less elongated ; anten- 
na*. almost filiform, or granose, or moderately and loosely clavate, some- 
times with less than three joints in the club ; tarsi, in many, less than 
five-jointed. Found mostly under the bark of dead trees. They never 
feed upon dead animal matter, but recent observations show that many 
of them are carnivorous or vermivorous, at least in their larva state, 
preying upon the soft larva*, of the wood and bark-eating insects. 
Composed of the families Trogositid®, Cucujid®, Oolydiid® and Lath 
ridiid®. 
FAMILIES OF LAND-SCAVENGERS 
Sub-tribe 1st. Glavicornes. 
A. Body oval or elliptical ; antenn® clavate or capitate. Anterior 
tarsi almost always five-jointed. 
B. Large insects, the smaller not much less than half an inch in 
length (except Catops.) Hind trochanters prominent. 
Thorax with a . thin margin Silphid .e. 
11 B. Small insects less than half an inch, mostly less than quarter 
of an inch in length. 
G. Wing-cases shorter than the abdomen. 
D. Abdomen thick, conical and pointed, first segment very 
long SCAPHIDILDAS. 
D D. Abdomen rounded behind. 
