PECULIAR MOTIONS OF INSECTS. 387 



surprise produced by its movements, for it is little 

 larger than a grain of sand, of a pale reddish colour, 

 with two black dots on the back ; — and though the 

 clods of garden-mould are mountains in comparison 

 to its size, it gallops over them at a thousand times 

 greater proportional speed than the swiftest race- 

 horse.* 



As a contrast to the quick-moving insects just 

 mentioned, we may turn for a moment to those which 

 move very slowly. The hunting spiders, though they 

 can dart with the rapidity of lightning upon their 

 prey, yet take care to approach a victim with such 

 extraordinary caution, that the shadow upon a sun-dial 

 advances not more imperceptibly. t Some of the 

 beetles again move very slowly, particularly the one 

 popularly called the oil-beetle {Proscarabmus vul- 

 garis^ Stephens), on account of the oily-looking 

 fluid which oozes out from it when seized or alarmed. 

 The unwieldy bulk of this animal makes it almost 

 painful to look at the efforts it apparently has to 

 make as it lumbers along. It always reminds us 

 of those bees which, during autumn, may often be 

 seen crawling lifelessly upon flowers, as if so over- 

 gorged with the honey which they had extracted, that 

 they are unfit to fly. How the oil-beetle becomes 

 so fat, it is not easy to say when we consider that it 

 feeds upon plants, and is seen very early in spring. 

 After the severe winter of 1829-30, we found several 

 in the beginning of March feeding on the bulbous- 

 rooted buttercup {Ranunculus bulboavs), at Charl- 

 ton, in Kent, and as plump as if there had not been 

 a day's frost during the winter. 



Another very common insect, popularly called the 



bloody-nosed beetle {Timarcha tenebricosa, Me- 



gerle), from its ejecting a red fluid from its mouth 



when caught, is one of the very slow walkers ; but 



* J, R. f lusecl Architecture, p. 355. 



z 2 



