A VARIABLE BEETLE. 



241 



Java. Not only does it vary much in size, some specimens 

 being barely half as large as others, but it has an extraordinary 

 scope of variety in the markings of the elytra. The general 

 colour is brown. Some specimens have only two large white 

 spots, which are placed in the centre of the elytra; others have 

 twelve spots ; while in some, the spots, instead of bemg wliite 

 are rust-red, like those of the first-mentioned species. Batocera 

 lineolata is covered with grey down and white spots, also variable 

 in form, size, and number. But in all the species, however much 

 they may differ from each other, the broad, jagged white stripe 

 along the sides of the thorax is present and is equally conspicuous. 



We now come to the group called Callichromides. This is a 

 very ajopropriate name, as it signifies beautiful colours, and most 

 of the insects which belong to the group are remarkable for the 

 splendour of their hues. It is a very large group, comprising 



Fig. 114 — Pliyllocneiua phyllopus. 

 (Deep velvet-purple.) 



some twenty-nine or thirty species, of whicli only one is known 

 to inhabit Europe. This is Aromia, to which our familiar Musk 

 Beetle belongs — the only British species of this splendid group, 

 but one which very efficiently represents it, not only in the 

 splendour of its colouring, but in its size and the fragrant odour 

 which it diffuses. 



The insect which has been selectod as a representative of this 

 u 



