INSECTS. 
occurring in Europe, seven are found in Britain, N. vespillo being perhaps the 
one which is most widely distributed. Most of the species of the genus Silpha — 
from which the family name is derived—are dark, sombre-looking insects, some¬ 
what ovate in shape, the prothorax being broad and closely applied to the base of 
the elytra, while the elytra 
usually extend to the tip of 
the abdomen. The head is 
small, and when turned down 
is hidden under the pronotum. 
The beetles themselves are 
generally met with in or about 
dead animals, but some of the 
species display a partiality for 
a vegetable diet; thus in 
France the adult Silpha 
reticulata has been found to 
attack wheat, while Silpha 
nigritct devours strawberries 
in the Alps and Pyrenees. 
Silpha atrata and Larva (rather less than nat. size). ~ , ** 
The larvae of most oi the 
species are somewhat like wood-lice in shape, with the posterior angles of the 
abdominal segments sharply produced. Those of S. opaca and S. atrata are some¬ 
times very destructive to the leaves of sugar-beet and mangold-wurzel. 
The Trichopterygidce, or hairy-winged beetles, are exceedingly minute insects, 
the smallest, in fact, of all the beetles, many of the species being less than the 
fiftieth part of an inch in length. They are further remarkable on account of 
the structure of their wings. These 
organs are very long and narrow, 
each consisting of a strip of mem¬ 
brane attached to a horny stalk and 
fringed on each side with long and 
closely-set hairs. 
The Histeridce form a well- 
defined family, widely distributed, 
and numbering considerably more 
than twelve hundred species. In 
colour they offer little variety, being 
mostly either black, dark blue, or 
green, the elytra being occasionally Hister Jimetarius and larva (nat. size), 
spotted with red or yellow. They 
are compactly oval or oblong-oval in form, and nearly always present a highly 
polished appearance. The antenna3 are short, with a long basal joint and a very 
distinct terminal club, and as a rule are capable of being turned back into grooves 
beneath the thorax. The elytra are truncate at the tips, leaving the last two 
segments of the abdomen exposed ; they are generally marked with a series of finely 
impressed longitudinal lines, the number and disposition of which afford useful 
