. A manual for the study of insects. Insects. COLEOPTERA, S31 her eggs upon it. The larvae that hatch from these eggs feed upon the food thus provided for them. There are many accounts of exhibitions of remarkable strength and sagacity by burying-beetles. A pair of these insects have been known to roll a large dead rat several feet in order to get it upon a suitable spot for burying. The members of the genus Silpha are very much flat- tened (Fig. 639). The prothorax is round in outline, with very thin edges which overlap the wing-covers somewhat. The body is not nearly as stout as that of a bu
. A manual for the study of insects. Insects. COLEOPTERA, S31 her eggs upon it. The larvae that hatch from these eggs feed upon the food thus provided for them. There are many accounts of exhibitions of remarkable strength and sagacity by burying-beetles. A pair of these insects have been known to roll a large dead rat several feet in order to get it upon a suitable spot for burying. The members of the genus Silpha are very much flat- tened (Fig. 639). The prothorax is round in outline, with very thin edges which overlap the wing-covers somewhat. The body is not nearly as stout as that of a burying-beetle, being fitted for creeping under dead animals instead of for performing deeds requiring great strength. Fig. 639. In some of the minute members of the family the body is nearly hemispherical. The family SCYDM^ENID^ (Scyd-maen'i-dse) includes very small insects found under bark or stones, in ants* nests, or near water. They are small, shining, usually ovate, but sometimes slender insects, of a brown color, and more or less clothed with erect hairs. Other characters are given in the preceding table of families. Nearly fifty North American species are known. The family PSELAPHID^ (Pse-laplVi-dae) includes certain very small beetles, the larger ones not exceeding one eighth inch in length. They resemble rove-beetles in the shortness of the wing-covers and in having the dorsal part of the abdominal segments entirely horny; but they differ from them in that the abdomen is not flexible, and in having fewer abdominal segments, there being only five or six on the ventral side. The species are of a chestnut-brown color and usually slightly pubescent. The elytra and abdomen are convex and usually wider than the head and prothorax. These beetles are found under stones and bark, or in ants- nests, or flying in the twilight. Nearly one hundred and fifty species are known from North Please note that these images are extracted from scanned page images that may have been
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