Beetles 
261 
C. villosus (Fig. 356), common all over the country, is about J inch long, 
blackish, with an incomplete broad transverse patch of vellowish-gray hairs 
across the elytra and another on the second and third abdominal segments. 
Leistotrophus is a genus with but one American species, L. cingulatus, about 
same size as the preceding, but of grayish-brown color 
indistinctly spotted with brown and with a golden tinge 
on the tip of the abdomen. Staphylinus is a genus of 
twenty species or more; S. maculosus , 1 inch long, is 
dark cinnamon-brown with a row of squarish black 
spots along the middle of the abdomen; S. cinna- 
mopterus , J inch long, is cinnamon-colored, with 
blackish abdomen; S. tomentosus, J inch long, is deep 
dull black; S. violaceus, % inch long, is black with 
thorax and elytra violet. Not uncommon along sandy 
seashore in California is a curious light-brown wing¬ 
less rove-beetle, Thinopinus pictus, with very short 
elytra, each with an open black ring, and with a double row of small black 
dots on the abdomen. Its abdomen is short and rather broad 
Another family of carrion-beetles of comparatively few species, some of 
which, however, are familiar and widely distributed, is that of the Silphidae, 
or burying-beetles. Both adults and larvae 
feed almost exclusively on decaying flesh. 
■The antennae of most species have the last 
four or five segments expanded and fused 
so as to form a conspicuous little ball or a 
compact club. Two genera include most 
o the familiar species, although the one 
hundred North American species of the 
family represent thirty different genera. 
These two are Silpha (Fig. 357), the roving 
carrion-beetles, and Necrophorus (Fig. 
358), the burying-beetles. The charac¬ 
teristic shape and appearance of these two 
types are well shown in the figures. The 
species of Silpha are short, broad-bodied, 
flat, dull blackish, and with the elytra rather 
leathery than horny, and lined longitudinally with shallow grooves. The 
prothorax is subcircular, with thin projecting margins. The larvae (Fig. 
359) and adults are found in and underneath putrid flesh. The larvae 
are apparently more active than the adults. Silpha lapponica, a common 
dull black form in both Europe and America, is said to enter houses in Lap- 
land to eat the stores of animal provisions. S. americana (PI. II, Fig. 5) has 
Fig. 357. Fig. 358. 
Fig. 357. — Carrion-beetle, Silpha 
noveboracensis. (One and one-half 
times natural size.) 
Fig. 358.—Burying-beetle, Necropho¬ 
rus marginatus. (One and one- 
half times natural size.) 
Fig. 356. —Rove-bee¬ 
tle, Creophilus vil¬ 
losus. (One and one- 
half times natural 
