It is believed that the perfect instar of Lampyrides takes no food at all. The larvae were formerly supposed to be vegetarian, but it appears probable that nearly all are carnivorous, the chief food being Mollusca either living or dead. The larvae are active, and in many species look almost as much like perfect Insects as do the imagos. The other divisions of Malacodermidae—Lycides, Drilides, Telephorides—also have predaceous, carnivorous larvae. All these groups are extensive. Though much neglected by collectors and naturalists, some 1500 species of the family Malacodermidae have been detected. We have about 50 in Britain, and many of them are amongst the most widely distributed and abundant of our native Insects. Thus, however near they may be to the primitive condition of Coleoptera, it is highly probable that they will continue to exist alongside of the primitive Cockroaches and Aptera, long after the more highly endowed forms of Insect-life have been extinguished wholesale by the operations of mankind on the face of the earth. [Illustration: Fig. 130—_Malachius aeneus._ Britain. A, Larva (after Perris); B, female imago.] FAM. 55. MELYRIDAE (or MALACHIIDAE).—_Six visible and moveable ventral abdominal segments; the basal part more or less distinctly co-adapted with the coxae._ These Insects are extremely numerous, but have been very little studied. In many works they are classified with Malacodermidae, but were correctly separated by Leconte and Horn, and this view is also taken by Dr. Verhoeff, the latest investigator. The smaller number of visible ventral segments appears to be due to a change at the base correlative with an adaptation between the base of the abdomen and the hind coxae. The characters are singularly parallel with those of Silphidae; but in Melyridae the antennae are filiform or serrate, {253}not clavate. The habits in the two families are different, as the Melyridae are frequenters of flowers. Many of the Melyridae have the integument soft, but in the forms placed at the end of the family—_e.g._ _Zygia_—they are much firmer. Thus these Insects establish a transition from the Malacodermidae to ordinary Coleoptera. Although the imagos are believed to consume some products of the flowers they frequent, yet very little is really known, and it is not improbable that they are to some extent carnivorous. This is the case with the larvae that are known (Fig. 130, larva of _Malachius aeneus_). These are said by Perris to bear a great resemblance to those of the genus _Telephorus_, belonging to the Malacodermidae.