in natural history, a genus of insects belonging to the order of Coleoptera. The antennae are moniliform, the last joint being roundish; the thorax is plano-convex and margined; the head projecting, and the elytra are somewhat stiff. Gmelin enumerates about 63 species. The larvae of some live in damp places under ground among rubbish; of others in flour and different kinds of food, where they undergo their metamorphosis. The perfect insects are very troublesome in houses; eating bread, meat, &c. They precipitately avoid the light; resorting in troops to dark damp cellars, where putrefaction allures and nourishes them. They are all of a very dark gloomy appearance, from which circumstance they take their name.