COLEOPTERA . 5 8 9 
is of a uniform black color (Fig. 718). Epicauta cinerea (E. 
ci-ne're-a) is sometimes clothed throughout with 
an ash-colored pubescence, and sometimes the 
wing-covers are black, except a narrow gray 
margin ; the two varieties were formerly consid¬ 
ered distinct species: the first is commonly known 
as the ash-colored Blister-beetle, the last as the 
Margined Blister-beetle. Another common spe- F,c - ? l8 - 
cies is the Striped Blister-beetle, Epicauta vittata (E. vit-ta'- 
ta); this species is yellowish or reddish above, with the head 
and prothorax marked with black, and with two black 
stripes on each wing-cover. 
In the far West very many species of blister-beetles 
occur—so many, in fact, that we cannot undertake to specify 
them here. 
The family RHIPIPHORID.E (Rhip-i-phor'i-dae) includes 
a small number of beetles, which are very remarkable in 
structure and habits. The wing-covers are usually shorter 
than the abdomen, and narrowed behind (Fig. 719); sometimes 
they are very small, and in one exotic genus they 
are wanting in the female, which lacks the wings also, 
and resembles a larva in form. The antennae are 
fig. 719- pectinate or flabellate in the males, and frequently 
serrate in the females. The adult insects are found on 
flowers. The larvae that are known are parasites, some in 
the nests of wasps, and some on cockroaches. 
The family STYLOPID/E (Sty-lop'i-dae) includes a small 
number of minute insects which differ so much from ordi¬ 
nary beetles that they have been classed by some writers as 
a distinct order, the Strepsiptera (Strep-sip'te-ra). In the 
males the elytra are reduced to slender, leathery, club-shaped 
appendages; while the wings are very large, fan-shaped, and 
furnished with a few diverging veins. The females have 
neither wings nor elytra, and resemble a larva in form. 
They are always contained in the pupa case in the body of 
a wasp or bee, which they infest parasitically. The point 
