OAK FREQUENTERS. 115 



in lieu of rolling a leaf, makes itself a curious boat-shaped 

 cocoon. 



A variety of Beetles, besides the cruel " Inquisitor/' may 

 be seen on the trunk, dislodged from under the bark, or found 

 near the root of the oak. Conspicuous amongst these, the 

 scarlet, black-legged " Cardinal/' though more partial to the 

 flowery May, is often found parading up the trunk, or taking a 

 circuit around this, his paternal tree under the bark of which 

 he first saw darkness, and passed, monk-like, the period of his 

 grub estate. 



The Carabus aterrimus a common dark destroyer of other 

 insects, and even of its own species the C. nitens, and a 

 Dermestes, whose favourite food consists of the wood-lice which 

 assemble behind the bark, are also amongst the preying beetles 

 which frequent the oak. 



The Golden-green Cicada* is another insect often found 

 upon the oak, from June to September. This is a curious, 

 shovel-headed, leaping little animal, allied to the Cicada of 

 singing celebrity, and, less remotely, to that which, while in 

 its green state of infancy, produces and inhabits the frothy 

 secretion so common on various leaves, and known usually as 

 "cuckoo spit." 



We have spoken already of several tribes of ants which 

 reside within the demesne of the regal oak, from whom these 

 insect republicans may be said to levy contributions, not only 



* Cicada aurita. 



