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74 NORTH AMERICAN INSECTS. 



shorter than this. Its head, like that of all its 

 kindred species, is very small, and looks as if it were 

 sunken in the thorax, which is large and composes 

 about one-third of its whole body. It is of a light 

 brownish colour, sprinkled here and there with white 

 sj)ots. It is called in Latin occulatus, or eyed, because 

 each side of its thorax is ornamented with a large 

 circular black spot, which looks like an eye. But as 

 its eyes are in its head, like all the others, I have 

 thought best to give it a more correct English name, 

 and accordingly, from the resemblance of its spots to 

 velvet, I call it the Velvet-spotted Spring-beetle. 



This Beetle is seen in all the States of the Union, 

 but more in the South than at the North. It is found 

 mostly in the trunks of trees, where its larvae also 

 reside. The larvae have flat bodies, of an orange 

 colour, and they live several years in this condition 

 before they become perfect Beetles. 



The Lightning Sjn lug-beetle (Elater noctilucus), 

 (Plate III. Fig 12), is another species of the same 

 genus, and has a far more appropriate Latin name, 

 noctilucus, or night-illuminating, but its common name 

 in English is the Cucujo. This Insect is nearly an 

 inch and a half long, and half an inch wide. It has 

 two yellow, elevated, corn-like spots upon each side 

 of the thorax, which are the principal organs for 

 emitting light, and which appear, Adieu alive, like 



