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Show 376 INSECTA. Sometimes the body is oblong, and the head, strangulated poste. riorly, is as wide as the anterior margin of the thorax, or not much nart'ower; the latter forms a square with rounded angles; the elytra form a long square, and are suddenly and stt·ongly truncated at their posterior extremity. The posterior thighs, at least in the males are usually inflated. The last joint of the maxillary palpi is rathe; more slender than the preceding one, almost cylind•·icaJ, somewhat smaller at the end, and obtuse. The anterior tarsi are dilated in the males. NEoRoPHORus, Fab.-Silpha, Lin.-Det·mestes, Geoff. The antennre, hardly longer than the head, terminate abruptly in an almost globular club offour joints, the firstofwhich is long, and the second much shorter than the third. The body nearly forms a parallelopiped; the thorax is widest anteriorly; all the tibire are strong, widened at the extremity and terminated by stout spurs; the elytra are truncated at right angles. The maxillre are destitute of a horny unguiculus. Their instinctive habit of burying the bodies of Moles, Mice, and other small Quadrupeds, have procured for them the names of enter· reurs and porte-morts. When they find a dead animal of the above description, they work under it and excavate a hole of sufficient dimensions to contain the body, which they gradually drag into it; in this body they deposit their ova, and thus the larvre find theirfood in the very nidus in which they are hatched. They are long, and of a greyish white colour; the anterior segments are covered supe· riorly with a small, fulvous-brown, squamous plate, anc.l the poste· rior with little elevated points. They are furnished with six feet and strong mandibles. When about to pass into the state of a chrysalis, they penetrate deeply into the earth, where they construct a cell, which they line with a viscid substance. These Insects, as well as many others that inhabit dead animal bodies, diffuse a strong odour resembling musk. Their habits have lately· attracted the attention of Mole-catchers, and in the work enti· tied L' .!l.rt du Taupier we find certain facts relative to this subject which had escaped the observations of naturalists. The sense of smell must be excessively acute in these Insects, for but a short time elapses after a Mole has been killed, when N ecl'Ophori are seen cir· cling about it, although they were previously sought for in vain in the same locality. The digestive canal of the Necrophori and Silphre is at least thrice the length of the body. The resophagus is very short and followed by an ellipsoidal gizzard, whose lining tunic is slightly scabrous and COLEOPTJ<~UA. bristled, at least in several species, with pointed setre variously directed, but arranged in eight longitudinal bands separated by smooth intervals. The intestinal canal is very long, particularly in the Nccrophol'i and Necrodes. Its surface, in the latter, as well as in the Silphre, is thickly st~dded wi~h salient and granular points. It opens, either laterally or directly, mto a smooth enlargement, which, according to Dufour-Ann. des Sc. Nat., Octob. 1824-may be compared to a crecu~. To t~e side is appended, a pediculated oval or oblong bursa which constitutes a part of the excrementitious apparatus. There are four biliary vessels, slender, extremely long and very flexuous, each of whi.ch is separately inserted round the extremity of the chylific ventricle.-Dufour, Ib., July 1825. From the figure of the alimentary canal of the Necroplwrus vespillo, given by Randohr, it appears that the great intestine, instead of being covered with granular papillre, is furnished with transverse muscular fillets, forming annular plicre. N. vespillo; Silpha vespillo, L.; Oliv., Col. II, 10, i, 1. From seven to eight lines in length; black; three last joints of the antennre red; elytra with two orange, transverse and indented bands; coxre of the two posterior legs armed with a strong tooth; the tibire are curved. N. mortuorum, Fab.; Panz., Faun. Insect. Germ., XLI, 3. Smaller; antennce entirely black; the second transverse orange band of the elytra observed on the vespillo, usually forming a large lunated spot. Found in woods, and frequently in mushrooms. N. germanicus, Fab.; Oliv., I b., 1, 2, a, b. More than an inch long; all black; external margin of the elytra fulvous; a fcl'l'ugineous yellow spot on the front. N. humator, Fab.; Oliv., lb. i, 2, c. Always smaller than the germanicus, and differing from it in the orange hue of the antenna} club. North America produces seve1·al species, one particulal'lyN. grandis, Fab.-that surpasses all others in size( 1 ). This genus seems to be confined to the northern districts of Europe and America. NEcnon:Es, Wilk.-Silpha, Lin. Fab. The antennre manifestly longe1· than the head, and terminated by an elongated club of five joints, the second of which is larger than the third. The body is an oblong oval, with an almost orbicular (1) Fot·the other species, see Fah., Oliv., and Scha:nhet·r, 1, ii, p. 117. VoL. Ill.-~ X |