LAND SCAVENGER-BEETLES. 
57 
Family VII. SILPHIDJ5. 
This family is founded upon the genus Silpha , a name originally given 
l>y the Greeks to some kind of foetid beetle, and appropriated by Lin- 
naius to the leading genus of the present family. These insects are 
(Fig. 18.] 
SlU’ii A IN7EQUALI8, Fab : — a, larva; d, same, natural 
size ; /, g, h, mandible, labium, and maxilla of lar- 
va; i,j, anal process and antenna* of same ; m, one 
of the lateral processes more highly magnified ; b, 
P u Pa- ; e, same, natural size ; l, anal process’ of 
same; c, beetle; k, anterior tarsus of same— af tor 
Itiley. 
most readily distinguished from 
the other Neerophaga by their 
large size. The species of Silpha 
are usually half an inch and up- 
wards in length, whilst some of 
the burying beetles, composing 
the genus Necropliorus, are an 
inch and a half. The other lead- 
ing characters are the orbicular 
or rounded thorax, very thin all 
around at the margin, and slightly 
overlapping the base of the ely- 
tra. The club of the autenme is 
perfoliate and 4 or 5-jointed. The hind trochanters are also prom- 
inent, especially in Necrophorus ; but they are uot swolen or sub-globu- 
lar, as they are in the laud predaceous beetles. The Silphie, in com- 
pany with their larvae, are found on dead and putrid animals.* The 
Necrophori have the curious instinct to deposit their eggs in small dead 
animals or fragments of putrid flesh, and then bury them in the ground 
several inches, and sometimes nearly a foot in depth. The lame hatch- 
ing from these eggs teed upon the decayed flesh, and, it is said, devour 
even the bones of small animals. 
there is a small group of dusky or blackish beetles belonging to the 
genera Catops and Colon, which are less than a quarter of an inch in 
length, which are usually classed with the Silphidae, and consequently 
form an exception to the majority of the family with respect to size. 
Fifty-five North American species have been described. 
the three leading or typical genera may be thus described : 
A. Antennas aapitato ; hoad large ami freo. Large thick bodied insects ; oulor black, olytra spotted 
with reddish-yellow Nbcrophorus. 
i A. Antenmc clavato and perfoliate; bead small; size medium; body broad and llatteued ; 
color black; thorax iu many margined with yellow. Sili-iia. 
A A A. Anteumn sub-clnvato; bead partly immersed iu the thorax; size small; form ovate - color 
black or .brown Catoi-s. 
A remarkable exception to the usual habits of this family, occurs in the case of a small European 
species, ( Silpha opaoa, Linn.) the larvte of which have been known to feed, to an injurious extent, upon 
the leaves of the beet and the mangel-wurzel. Curtis’ Farm Insects, p. 388. 
— S 
