70 THE GEODEPHAGA. 



and of a black colour. The former has the margins 

 of the thorax beautifully tinted with a metallic purple ; 

 the elytra are of a fine coppery or brassy tint, deli- 

 cately grained all over, and exhibiting three rows of 

 small impressed dots. It is found abundantly in the 

 gardens of the suburbs of London, and in those parts 

 where the gravel footpaths have not given way to 

 paving-stones, nothing is more common than to see 

 these insects lying dead upon the paths in the morn- 

 ing, crushed iDcneath the unheeding heels of nocturnal 

 wanderers. The Carahus violaceus, from inhabiting 

 the open fields and heaths, is not liable to have the 

 thread of his existence cut short in this unceremonious 

 manner, and he often continues his wanderings under 

 the bright morning sun. This fine Beetle is entirely 

 of a bluish black, with the whole upper sm-face finely 

 grained; the margins of the thorax have a delicate 

 \'iolet tinge, and the outer margins of the elytra are 

 tinted with coppery purple. Some of the other 

 species of Carahus are far more brilliant than these, 

 but they are for the most part less common, or at all 

 events less generally distributed; the two just men- 

 tioned may be met with almost everywhere. In their 

 habits they are all very predaceous, both in the larva 

 and perfect state, and as their victims are principally 

 found amongst the larger species of herbivorous 

 Beetles, and many of these are exceedingly injurious 

 to cultivated plants both in fields and gardens, our 

 Carabi must be numbered amongst the insect friends 

 of the gardener and husbandman. 



The same is the case with most of the smaller 

 species of the group, which imitate, on a small scale, 

 the rapine of their more powerful neighbours. 

 Amongst them, however, there are some which appear 



