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ENTOMOLOGICAL NEWS. [Nov., '06 



manoeuvres on the part of the male ; he hugs her more closely, 

 and standing high on his hind legs, with his middle legs lifts 

 her abdomen from the ground, which she is pressing all the 

 time, coaxing with the end of his penis, endeavoring to effect 

 an entrance. Usually he succeeds, though sometimes the female 

 is adroit as well as obdurate, and after some minutes spent in 

 this amorous struggle his passion is gone, and the female releases 

 herself from his embrace. One of the beetles was more pas- 

 sionate than his fellows, going without food, riding one female 

 several hours, though unable to effect an entrance, and finally 

 copulating with a dead female that lay in a corner of the cage. 



Each afternoon, about five o'clock on ordinary days, about 

 seven when the weather was extremely warm, they would retire 

 to a shallow burrow dug in the sand. This burrow was dug 

 near the edge of some object, like a stone or small block of 

 wood. In this burrow the beetle stayed until eight or nine in 

 the morning, and on days that were extremely warm they would 

 emerge somewhat earlier, but, as a rule, they were late risers. 

 These burrows were made by loosening the sand with the 

 mandibles, then pushing it back, first with the fore legs, then 

 with the middle legs, and then with the hind legs. The legs 

 are used alternately, all on one side, then all on the other side. 

 These burrows were one-half to one inch deep and opened out 

 at the bottom into a chamber about one-half inch in diameter, 

 enabling the beetle to turn around at the bottom of the burrow 

 and face the entrance. Sometimes the burrow was made larger 

 and two or more inhabited it. On rainy or cold days the 

 beetles remained in their burrows. During one rainy spell they 

 kept hidden for three days, then emerged as lively as ever. 



There was frequently observed certain actions of the insects 

 confined in the cage, which simulated play. These same actions 

 were observed twice in the late summer among some beetles 

 that crowded a little sandspit on the banks of the river. This 

 play, if it can be called such, consisted in a cicindelid rushing 

 at a fellow, either snapping at him with his mandibles or merely 

 bumping against him and then running off, when the jostled 

 one would give chase and they would run around the cage 

 after one another. Sometimes a beetle would jostle another 



