FAM. 39. ENDOMYCHIDAE.[122]—_Tarsi apparently three-jointed, the first two joints broad, the terminal joint elongate; at the base of the terminal joint there is, however, a very small joint, so that the tarsi are pseudotetramerous; antennae rather large, with a large club; labium not at all retracted behind the mentum; front and middle coxae globose; abdomen with five movable ventral segments, and a sixth more or less visible at the tip._ This family includes a considerable diversity of elegant Insects that frequent fungoid growths on wood. It comprises at present fully 500 species, but nearly the whole of them are exotic, and inhabit the tropical forests. We have only two British species, both of which are now rarities, but apparently were much commoner at the beginning of the century. The larvae are broader than is usual in Coleoptera; very few, however, are known. [Illustration: Fig. 119—_Mycetaea hirta._ Britain. A, Larva (after Blisson); B, perfect Insect.] FAM. 40. MYCETAEIDAE.—_Tarsi four-jointed, the first two joints not very different from the third, usually slender; abdomen with five visible ventral segments, which are movable; front and middle coxae globular._ The little Insects composing this family are by many placed as a division of Endomychidae, and Verhoeff is of opinion that the group is an altogether artificial one; but we think, with Duval, it makes matters simpler to separate them. There are only {240}some forty or fifty species, found chiefly in Europe and North America. We have three in Britain; one of these, _Mycetaca hirta_ is very common, and may be found in abundance in cellars in the heart of London, as well as elsewhere; it is said to have injured the corks of wine-bottles, and to have caused leakage of the wine, but we think that it perhaps only increases some previous deficiency in the corkage, for its natural food is fungoid matters. The larva is remarkable on account of the clubbed hairs at the sides of the body.