62 
THE ORDER OP COLEOPTERA. 
Family XIII. CRYPTOPIIAGID/E. 
TLis family name means essentially tlie same as the preceding one, 
and implies that the insects which compose it feed upon Cryptogamous 
plants, which include the mushrooms and fungi. They are very small 
insects, usually less than one-tenth of an inch in length, of a light-yel- 
lowish brown color, and usually having a silken lustre, produced by a 
microscopically tine pubescence. They are distinguished from the 
Mycetophagidie by their usually smaller size, their finer pubescence, 
the absence of spots, and in the typical and most numerous genus by 
little saw-like teeth along the sides of the thorax. The C. cellaris and 
G. crinitus are often found in cellars. 
Upwards of thirty N. A. species have been described. 
Family XIV. BYURIIIDAt 
The Byrrhidm are distinguished from all other pentamerous clavicorns 
by their short and very strongly arched or convex bodies, taken in cou- 
[Fig. 25 .] section with the hairs or minute scales by which the surface 
of their bodies is more or less clothed and ornamented. The 
family includes moderately large and very small species 
— some of the species of the typical genus Byrrhus* being from 
one-quarter to one-half of an inch in length. All the other 
beetles of this tribe, which have very strongly convex or sub- 
beetie" s: hTmi e'°'- )u ' ar bodies, are distinguished from the Byrrhidte by being 
fofieS^an'd s,na ^ or very small insects, with a shining or polished surface. 
sera from The Byrrhidse are further distinguished by the extreme con- 
Westwood, tractility of their members — the joints of their legs being ca- 
pable of being shut so closely upon each other and upon the body, that 
they are scarcely distinguishable, except upon close inspection. This, 
together with their sub-globular form, suggested toLiumeus the specific 
name of pilula, for a European species, from its resemblance to a pill or 
little ball of inanimate matter. These insects are found upon the ground, 
often in sandy situations, also at the roots of trees and grass. Some 
species are known to feed upon the mosses. 
Thirty-two N. A. species are known. 
* This name, which is supposed to have been derived from the Greek bursa — a hide , from some fan- 
cied resemblance in texture, was originally given to these insects by Linmeus, in the twelfth edition 
of the Systcraa Natures , in 17CG. Mr. Crotch, in his recent Check List of N. A. Coleoptera, suppresses 
this name and adopts the name of Cistola, previously given to this genus by Geofflroy, but since ap- 
plied to a genus of heteromcrous beetles, liut we prefer to retain the name given by Liunams, and 
established by universal usage for more thau a century. 
