CARABUS. 
106 
Among the smaller species the Carabus cupreus 
is a very frequent insect, being seen almost every 
where during the summer months in gardens, dry 
pathways, &c, generally running, like the rest of 
this genus, with a very brisk motion: its usual 
length is about half an inch, and its colour cop- 
pery-olive, varying in different specimens into 
gold-green, brassy, purple, &c. &c. 
The British species of Carabus, according to 
Mr. Marsham, amount to no less than a hundred 
and nine, and in this as well as in most other 
genera, we may well suppose that many are yet 
undescribed. 
In many parts of Europe, as in Germany, 
France, &c. is found a species of middling size, 
and which is known among entomologists by the 
title of Carabus crepitans: it is thus named from 
the extraordinary faculty which it possesses of 
discharging from behind, on being pursued or 
irritated, a blueish, fetid, and penetrating vapour, 
accompanied by a very smart explosion: this 
operation it has the power of repeating ten, 
twelve, or even twenty times in succession, with 
equal violence, thus frequently escaping by terri- 
tying its pursuers. This insect is said to be 
often pursued, and sometimes preyed upon by a 
larger species of Carabus, against the attacks of 
which the peculiar faculty above-described is sin- 
gularly successful. From some late observations 
it appears that some exotic species of this genus 
have a similar power in a still higher degree, be- 
ing of a much greater size than the European 
insect. 
