FAM. 56. CLERIDAE.—_Tarsi five-jointed; but the basal joint of the posterior very indistinct, usually very small above, and closely united with the second by an oblique splice; the apices of joints two to four usually prolonged as membranous flaps; anterior coxae prominent, usually contiguous, rather large, but their cavities not prolonged externally; labial palpi usually with large hatchet-shaped terminal joint; ventral segments five or six, very mobile._ The Cleridae are very varied in form and colours; the antennae are usually more or less clubbed at the tip, and not at all serrate, but in _Cylidrus_ and a few others they are not clubbed, and in _Cylidrus_ have seven flattened joints. The student should be very cautious in deciding as to the number of joints in the feet in this family, as the small basal joint is often scarcely distinguishable, owing to the obliteration of its suture with the second joint. The little Alpine _Laricobius_ has the anterior coxal cavities prolonged externally, and the coxae receive the femora to some extent, so that it connects Cleridae and Derodontidae. The Cleridae are predaceous, and their larvae are very active; they are specially fond of wood-boring Insects; that of _Tillus elongatus_ (Fig. 131) enters the burrows of _Ptilinus pectinicornis_ in search of the larva. The members of the group Corynetides frequent animal matter, carcases, bones, etc., and, it is said, feed thereon, but Perris's recent investigations[130] make it probable that the larvae really eat the innumerable Dipterous larvae found in such refuse; it is also said that the larvae of Cleridae spin cocoons for their metamorphosis; but Perris has also shown that the larvae of _Necrobia ruficollis_ really use the puparia formed {254}by Diptera. Some of the species of _Necrobia_ have been spread by commercial intercourse, and _N. rufipes_ appears to be now one of the most cosmopolitan of Insects. The beautifully coloured _Corynetes coeruleus_ is often found in our houses, and is useful, as it destroys the death-watches (_Anobium_) that are sometimes very injurious. _Trichodes apiarius_, a very lively-coloured red and blue beetle, destroys the larvae of the honey-bee, and Lampert has reared _Trichodes alvearius_ from the nests of _Chalicodoma muraria_, a mason-bee; he records that one of its larvae, after being full grown, remained twenty-two months quiescent and then transformed to a pupa. Still more remarkable is a case of fasting of the larva of _Trichodes ammios_ recorded by Mayet;[131] this Insect, in its immature form, destroys _Acridium maroccanum_; a larva sent from Algeria to M. Mayet refused such food as was offered to it for a period of two and a half years, and then accepted mutton and beef as food; after being fed for about a year and a half thereon, it died. Some Cleridae bear a great resemblance to Insects of other families, and it appears probable that they resemble in one or more points the Insects on which they feed. The species