SOLDIERS AND SAILORS. 117 



Although rather slow in their motions^ and flying 

 rather heavily, our little friends, the Soldiers and 

 Sailors, are of an exceedingly predaceous disposition, 

 destroying and devouring smaller insects without 

 mercy, and not even sparing their own kind ; indeed 

 their courtship appears to be rather a dangerous busi- 

 ness, for the females, being always larger and stronger 

 than the males, are said not unfrequently to make a 

 meal of their incautious admirers. Their larvae, 

 which are flattened, black, and fleshy, furnished with 

 a horny head and six legs, reside in the ground, and 

 in moss, where they exhibit the same warlike propen- 

 sities as their parents. Earthworms are said to be 

 their favourite diet. 



Of insects nearly allied to these we have numerous 

 British species, none of which, however, exceed three- 

 quarters of an inch in length, whilst most of them are 

 much smaller. Amongst them we may notice the 

 species of the genus Malachius, some of which are 

 very abundant, and which are generally of a fine 

 brassy green colour, beautifully spotted with scarlet. 

 Some of these insects are remarkable for possessing 

 the power of protruding small bright red or yellow 

 vesicles from the sides of their bodies, the object of 

 which is supposed to be that of frightening away other 

 insects which may be meditating an attack upon them. 

 Mr. Westwood supposes that, like the white vesicles 

 of the tail of Ocypus olens, their protrusion may be 

 accompanied by the evolution of some odoriferous 

 matter. 



But amongst these soft-skinned carnivorous beetles 

 there is one which will, perhaps, be regarded by my 

 readers with more interest than all the rest, — this is 

 the Glow-worm {Lampyris noctiluca), whose little 



