7-HE STAPHYLINUS OLENS. 289 



short elytra, and the last segment of the abdomen is retractile. 

 One of them is very well known, and belongs to the genus Sta- 

 pkyliniis, and it is usually called, in this country, the Devil's 

 Coach-horse. It is a black insect, which is constantly seen on 

 the roads, and emits a very disagreeable smell. It is a car- 

 nivorous beetle, and has astonishing impudence and boldness, like 

 many other animals that live by the chase ; so that when it is 

 disturbed it does not attempt to run away, but stops, and puts 

 on a menacing attitude. It grasps the ground with its legs, and 

 cocks up its head and tail, snaps its sharp and curved mandibles, 

 and exhales a very disagreeable smell. The larva is quite as 

 carnivorous as the beetle ; and its head and thoracic segments 

 are hard, its legs are long, and the abdomen, which is narrow 

 towards the end, is furnished with a sort of tail, which assists in 

 walking. It is very agile, and takes on the habits and methods 

 of progression of the adult. 



In the engraving a perfect beetle is represented with its wings 

 expanded, and on the left hand, immediately beneath it, is an adult 

 whose wings are shut up underneath the short elytra, and which 

 is in a menacing attitude. Below it are the larvae, and under a 

 stone a nymph. The larvae hide themselves underneath stones or 

 in quiet places, and only go out by night. They hybernate, and 

 when the fine weather returns they make a cell in the ground, 

 where they undergo their metamorphosis. The nymph is of a 

 shining yellow colour, and has a crown of hair on the front of 

 the thorax. Other members of the genus, such as StapJiylimis 

 maxillos7is, which has prodigious jaws, live upon carcases ; others, 

 which have thin and almost linear bodies, are very common in 

 damp woods, and are found underneath fallen leaves and decayed 

 bark, where they chase their prey. The larva of one species 

 lives underneath the bark, and attacks others which feed upon 

 decayed wood. There is a little group of the same tribe, the 

 species of which live, in the larval and adult condition, in de- 

 caying vegetables, and especially in mushrooms. An allied form 

 does not care about the mushrooms, but seeks manure heaps, 

 where its larvae devour the maggots of flies ; and another species 

 lives in hornets' nests, where it probably eats the larvee of those 

 great wasps. 



T 



