230 THE CANADIAN ENTOMOLOGIST. 



one's fingers repeatedly. They are of both sexes. Individuals occur 

 which connect these runners with the flyers, inasmuch as they are able to 

 make very short leaps while running, using the wings to assist them at 

 these times. Of all of these specimens unable to fly that I have examined 

 (and I have examined nearly all I came across), I have succeeded in find- 

 ing alar defects in but one ; in this one the marginal nervure of one of the 

 wings was broken, where the wing folds to be laid under the elytron. In 

 all the others the wings were to all appearances as well formed as in any 

 specimens of the species. This peculiarity is no doubt due to a weakness 

 of the muscles which control the wings, tending towards a form incapable 

 of flight and in which the elytra are connate. 



Specimens are often taken mutilated ; and these, though in the majority 

 of cases males, are quite often females. So it would appear that in this 

 species the females have some fighting to do, as well as the males. In 

 one instance I took a male which was lying on the sand right side up, 

 apparently lifeless, but unmutilated ; it had just enough life left to move 

 its mandibles as I picked it up. Others are taken with their antennae, legs 

 or elytra injured, or even wholly wanting. I have taken one specimen 

 which had lost both elytra. Mutilated ones seem to occur in the greatest 

 proportion towards the last of the season, and then they are in general 

 most badly mutilated. On 13th October, of the nine specimens taken, six 

 were males, and all of these but one mutilated ; one had its left elytron 

 half nipped off", and the others a sad state of the legs, many being entirely 

 gone. One of the females also had a leg missing. 



I have observed a deformity in this species in a female taken with one 

 elytron imperfectly developed, there being a wrinkle or plait taken across 

 it near the extremity. This female was a small one, and in addition to the 

 deformity had the tarsi of two of the legs missing. 



It may be well to add what effect the cyanide of potassium has upon 

 these beetles. They generally seem anxious to have something in their 

 jaws when they die under the influence of this chemical. If they cannot 

 get a leg or an antenna of some fellow beetle in their grasp, they will often 

 die with one of their own legs clasped tightly in their mandibles. Several 

 specimens were taken out after having been about forty-five minutes in the 

 cyanide bottle. The only parts that showed life were the posterior tarsi ; 

 there was a frequent twitching of the final joints in these. After being 

 out some time, some of the other tarsi were similarly affected, and probably 

 the insects would have gradually recovered their full powers, had I not 



