24 INSECTS ABROAD. 



that they must not be dismissed without a few jjarting 

 words. 



On a review of British and foreign insects, we cannot but be 

 struck with some remarkable phenomena. It might naturally 

 be expected that the insects of tropical climates very far sur- 

 pass in number and beauty those which inhabit the temperate 

 zones. And, in comparing the insects of a tiny island like 

 England with those of the vast tract which lies within the 

 tropical belt, it is but natural to suppose that the disproportion 

 of territory would be represented by an equal disproportion in 

 the number, size, and beauty of the insect tribes. In a certain 

 degree this theory is carried out by fact, but there are cases 

 where it entirely fails, as we shall presently see. With the 

 Tiger Beetles, however, the increase in the number of species is 

 commensurate with the area of surface. In England we have 

 but seven species of Tiger Beetle, all belonging to the typical 

 genus, Cicindela. Several of them are very rare, and the most 

 plentiful species, common though it may be, is seldom seen 

 except by professed entomologists, who know where to look 

 for it. 



The reason is evident enough. Agriculture does not agree 

 with the Tiger Beetle, and, when cultivation comes in, the 

 Beetle goes out. There is no help for it, and the consequence 

 is, that in places where the lovely beetles used to flash their 

 blue and green armour in the sunbeams, like living sapphires 

 and emeralds, as long as the land remained uncultivated, not a 

 single specimen can now be seen, and the Tiger Beetle has been 

 forced ignominiously to resign its place to the turnip- fly and 

 the cabbage caterpillar. 



No Tiger Beetle can exist in cultivated ground. They all 

 love loose sandy soils, in which their burrows can be made 

 without the likelihood of disturbance. Some prefer the sea- 

 shore, and others the sandy, sheltered banks of inland districts. 

 But in no case does a Tiger Beetle larva make its burrow in 

 cultivated land. Its instinct teaches it to avoid such localities ; 

 and, if any adventurous individual did choose a garden or a corn- 

 field, it would have no chance of attaining maturity, inasmuch . 

 as its burrow would be repeatedly filled up by the gardener or 

 the labourer, and the insect starved before it could get its tunnel 



