THE ANIMAL KINGDOM. 



143 



duced by these Coleoptera is intense enough to startle those 

 who do not know the ruse. We often see young people 

 who have seized one let it escape suddenly from their fin- 

 gers, astonished by this singular attack. 1 



The automatic nature of insects has only been main- 

 tained by those who have never observed them ; on the 

 contrary, those naturalists who are acquainted with them 

 assign to them decidedly high faculties. 



75. Calosoma (Culusuma inquisitor) pursuing a Bombardier {Brachinus crepitans), who is 



fighting in retreat. 



A hemipterous insect, the tricks of which have rendered 

 it celebrated enough, the Reduvius personatus, conceals it- 

 self under a disguise quite as deceptive as that of the Cri- 

 oceris, but which has the advantage of being infinitely less 



1 The bombardier, called also the Gunner Scarabaeus (Brachinus crepitans) , be- 

 longs to the genus Brachinus. It is a little beetle which lives beneath stones. 

 The gaseous fluid which produces the detonation has a pungent odor, is acid, and 

 reddens tincture of litmus. Some entomologists have considered it as analogous 

 to nitric acid, and add that when brought into contact with the skin it produces a 

 yellow stain. 



