34 INSECTS ABROAD. 



my eyes are small, yet I have been assured by a young lady 

 friend of mine — sometimes irreverently called Polly — that they 

 are penetrating ; and my friend Adam White, when he warned 

 me not to forget my ' Carabs,' had sent me a rough outline of 

 the 'corpus' of Damaster. So I carefully lifted my unresisting 

 sable friend from his native soil, and after giving him a good 

 long stare, I deposited him in a bottle. From his name and 

 appearance I judge him to be cousin to Blaps, and I turned 

 over the rockwood for his brothers and other relations ; but 

 though Helops was there, Damaster was not. Puzzled, but 

 not baffled, I conceived his taste was more particular, so I 

 ascended the steep green sides of the island, and cast about 

 for rotten trees ; nor was I long in discovering a very pro- 

 mising stump, nicely decoyed, and full of holes enough to 

 captivate the heart of any Beetle. Being, however, fatigued 

 with my scansorial efforts, I sat down before the citadel of 

 Damaster, and assisted my deliberations by smoking a solemn 

 pipe. Having propitiated Nicotiana, and matured my plan of 

 operations, I commenced the work of destruction, when, lo ! 

 among the vegetable debris I descried a long dusky leg, anon 

 two more, and then, buried among the ruins, the struggling 

 Damaster. 



" In this manner was the rarest Beetle known captured by a 

 wandering disciple of ^sculapius and an eccentric Fellow of 

 the Linnaean Society." 



The colour of this insect is dull, dead black, and, both in 

 general contour and in hue, it bears so great a resemblance to 

 the well-known Churchyard Beetles (Blaps), that the specific 

 name of hlaptoides, i.e. like the Blaps, has been giA^eu to it. 

 Since the above-mentioned letter was written, many other speci- 

 mens of this curious Beetle have been taken, so that it is not 

 now nearly so rare as it was then. Many more travellers visit 

 Japan than was the case, thirteen years ago, and the hal^its of 

 the insect are better known. 



The second example of the Cychridse belongs to the typical 

 genus, and is named Cychrus vidua. 



The shape of this Beetle is singularly elegant, as can be seen 

 from the illustration. It is a native of North America. Both 

 in shape and colour it presents a very decided contrast to its 



