CANTHARID.E. 
343 
by Fairmaire with Asclera indica, from Bengal, and Oncomera (Dryops) 
indica from Kanara. 
Mordellid^e. 
Head short, bent down over the legs, with a narrow neck, antennae 
filiform, dentate or, in the males, pectinate. 
Small thickset short beetles with, in our common species, a 
characteristic facies. They fall into two series, partly regarded as 
distinct families ( Rhipiphorince and Mordellince). Our common species 
belong to the former and, so far as known, are parasites in the nests 
of Aculeate Hymenoptera. Horne figures Emenadia ferruginea, F. ( fla - 
bellata, F.), which he reared from the nests of Eumenes in India. This 
and other species are common on the wing in the plains and are readily 
recognisable : the elytra are pointed, the body very thickset, vertical 
in front, the colouring black and yellow brown (Plate XXI, figs. 9, 
10). This genus is practically world-wide. Rhipiphorus pectinicornis, 
Thunb. (blattarum, Saund.), is parasitic, the female wingless and lar- 
viform, living on cockroaches. Of the two geneia, nine are recorded 
as Indian. Of the Mordellince, none appear to be recorded ; we have 
reared one species from larvae found boiing in the stems of Dicliptera. 
Cantharid^e. —Blister Beetles. 
The head is joined to the prothorax by a distinct neck. The elytra are 
not closely applied to the abdomen ; the integument is weak. 
The claws have appendages. 
These beetles are easily recognisable from the above characters 
and have a distinct facies. They are rarely over one inch long, usually 
about half an inch, moderately robustly 
built. The colours are varied, in some 
cases typically warning, in others blue, 
brown or dull coloured. The antennae 
are long and simple, rarely of less joints 
than eleven in the Mylabrince; the head 
is of moderate size, the compound eyes 
large, the biting mouth-parts not con¬ 
spicuous. The prothorax is narrower 
than the head and the two are not broadly united but joined by a neck 
Fig. 219.—Mylabris 
PUSTULATA. 
