Feb. 1, 1S67.] 



HARDWICKE'S SCIENCE-GOSSIP. 



27 



THE BLOOD-BEETLE. 



IT was in the month of October several years ago 

 that I first became acquainted with the Blood- 

 Beetle. It was crawling over some herbage at a 

 very sluggish pace, totally different to the hurrying 

 race of a Sun-Beetle across your path, or a Weevil 

 over the leaves, and I took it up to examine it. 

 While turning it over, I found my fingers were 

 covered with what I at first took to be blood ; recol- 

 lecting, however, that none of the other beetles 

 with which I was acquainted afforded the sangui- 

 neous fluid, I looked a little closer, and discovered 

 a rich scarlet bead, very translucent in appearance, 

 emerging from the creature's mouth. Upon taking 

 up several others they behaved in the same way, 

 and the habit appeared evidently a defensive one, 

 although the fluid was to me perfectly harmless ; it 

 might not be so, however, to the enemies of the 

 Beetle. This habit, together with the firm ovate 

 appearance, and the worse than snail's pace at 

 which it crawled along, made the insect very inte- 

 resting to a neophyte in Natural History ; and not 

 knowing its name, I called it pro tern, the Blood- 

 Beetle, which, perhaps, is slightly more refined 

 than its common English cognomen, " The Bloody- 

 nosed Beetle." As it was then rather late in the 

 year, there was not much opportunity for dis- 

 covering many of its peculiarities ; it soon retired 

 from observation, probably burying itself among 

 thick moss or herbage. Early in January, however, 

 it was abroad in the sunshine under the hedges, and 

 my interest was again drawn to it. In April I 

 noticed another curious creature — very common : 

 it appeared to be some kind of larva. It was about 

 ten lines in length, of a dull metallic green above 

 and pinkish beneath, the whole body very wrinkled, 

 and in general appearance convex. It was feeding 

 on bed-straw ; and, where one specimen was seen, 

 plenty of others were sure to be found. It was not 

 until I had taken several up to look at that some of 

 the well-known fluid appeared, and the thought at 

 once struck me that the creature was the larva of 

 my new friend, the Beetle. It fed, too, on the 

 same food, Galium aparine, and more rarely on 0. 

 mollugo. I at once collected the larvae and caged 

 them, and after a time found my suspicions correct, 

 for they produced some very fine imagos. 



This was one of my first entomological dis- 

 coveries; and, like every other beginner, I felt a 

 good deal of satisfaction at having made it myself 

 without the aid of a book. I mention this simply 

 as an illustration of the pleasure awaiting any one 

 who chooses to search for it in the insect world. 

 A few of the notes I have since made on the same 

 species may, perhaps, prove interesting to some of 

 our readers. 



The Beetle itself is, at least round High 

 Wycombe, the most plentiful of the larger coleop- 



tera, being found on every bank and under every 

 hedge; it appears also to be the most hardy, for 

 there is probably no season of the year when it may 

 not be seen — I have caught it in every month except 

 December. The larvae are to be found in April and 

 May on bed-straws, looking when young merely like 

 small black protuberances on the leaves. At first 

 sight it would appear that they do not possess the 

 usual number of prolegs or claspers— so prominent 

 among the lepidopterous caterpillars— having appa- 

 rently only one at the tail. Although Westwood 

 mentions this as single, it is evident to the naked 

 eye, and much more so through a glass, that it is a 

 double one, quite as much as that of a hawk-moth 

 larva ; the other four pairs are present in the shape 

 of small tubercles on the abdomen, and are seen 

 quite plainly if the creature be allowed to cross the 

 hand held up horizontally to the light each is then 

 seen to be brought into full play in the act of 

 walking ; they are not so easily detected when it is 

 crawling over the herbage. When seized it rolls 

 itself up like a hedgehog, not being proportionally 

 long enough to do so after the fashion of ''larger 

 caterpillars. When alarmed, I have known it, in 

 various instances, to emit the scarlet fluid, but it is 

 not done so freely as by the imago. It changes its 

 skin at regular intervals, appearing immediately 

 after of a reddish hue, particularly about the head 

 and legs : it gradually darkens in colour. The larva 

 is quite as sluggish in its movements as the perfect 

 insect. 



All my specimens were buried by June 10th, but 

 some had gone down into the earth a fortnight 

 before. On July 4th I disinterred one or two ; they 

 were then of a very light pink colour, very jelly-like 

 in appearance ; the legs were perfectly formed, and 

 the wings lay loosely by the side of the body, which 

 was on its back. A small cavity had been formed 

 in the soil in the usual way, the sides of which were 

 made quite compact by the pressure of the body, 

 and at one end lay the cast-off skin ;" the antennae 

 were full size ; but these, like the legs, were pink, 

 much deeper in shade than the body. On July 22nd 

 I disinterred another almost perfect, but the body 

 was still soft and pink, while the elytra were of 

 their proper hue : a second specimen was still with- 

 out the wing cases. The first imago emerged July 

 30th, and this was soon followed by the others. 



The perfect insect is very ovate in appearance 

 and firm in consistency, the under-surface and also 

 the legs are of a glistening metallic dark blue, the 

 elytra are nearly black, as is also the head and 

 thorax. It is placed in the family Chba'someud-E, 

 and in the genus Timarcha, though formerly it was 

 called a Tenebrio : the specific name is tenebricosa, 

 or more lately Icevigata : the latter term is prefer- 

 able, as it serves more directly to contrast it with 

 the other species in the same genus— coriaria. The 

 elytra are soldered together longitudinally; and 



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