THE ORDER OP COLEOPTERA. 
<4 
posed of a little lamella or plate, supported at the end of a slender foot- 
stalk, and ornamented with a fringe of long hairs. In some the wings 
are wanting. The elytra are sometimes truncated. The club of the 
antennae is usually four, rarely two jointed. The tarsi are only three 
jointed, with a club-tipt bristle between the claws. The surface is often 
pubescent. Some live in rotten wood and others in manure; a few have 
been found in ants’ nests. 
Thirty-eight N. American species have been described. 
Family XVIII. SCYDMjENIDxE. 
This is another family of very small insects, found under stones or in 
waste matter, and in ants’ nests. They are of a brown color, and are 
clothed with erect hairs. They are frequently seen flying in twilight. 
They are very easily distinguished from the small beetles of the three 
preceding families, by their more oblong ovate form, by the head sepa 
rated from the pro- thorax by a distinct neck, and by their large abdo- 
mens, much wider than the somewhat egg-shaped -thorax. They bear 
the closest relationship to the more extensive family of Pselaphid®, 
treated of below, from which, however, they are strongly separated by 
their five jointed tarsi, and their elytra covering the whole abdomen. 
Thirty-eight N. A. species already described. 
Family XIX. TROGOSITID/E. 
Founded upon the genus Trogosita, of Olivier, a name composed of the 
Greek words trogo — to eat , and sitos — grain, and originally applied to the 
most notorious species, the Trogosita mauritanica , ( Tenebrio mauritani- 
[Kg. 20.] cus , Linn.) because it is often 
found iu great numbers in 
worm-infested granaries. But 
observations recently made up- 
on the carnivorous habits of 
other species of the genus, ren- 
der it probable that the larva; 
of the T. mauritanica live upon 
the larvic of the Calandrse and 
tuogosita couticams, Meiah.:— a, larva : c. ita niandi- Tiniie, which are the real au- 
bl<- ; d. antenna; e. under side of licad ; /, tlri two-horned . 
anal plate : b, the beetle ; ft, its antenna ; i, inaudible ; g, tliors Ol tile damage. IhlS View 
labium and its palpi ; j, one of tie maxilla) and its palpus . ... , 
—after luiey. is confirmed by our own obser- 
tions upon the larva of a common American species, the Trogosita 
corticalis, of Melslieimer, which we have seen preying upon the larva of 
the Codling-moth (C 'arpocapsa pomonella). The Trogositidffl are oblong, 
somewhat depressed or flattened beetles, of a black or reddish black 
