INSECT VARIETY. 135 



of geologists, our northern Lamellicorn associates of miry lanes 

 are, despite their employment and livery of decay, creatures of 

 superior instinct, and the creaking of the common species may 

 at all times afford entertainment, fi-om the windy vernal equinox 

 when, ere the snow has vanished, the keen air of our southern 

 heaths resounds to the boom of the bull-horned TypJuens vul- 

 garis, until late in October, when the drone of the Watchman 

 Beetle lends solemnity to the chilly evenings and blackberry 

 rambles. Like all burromng insects, both these kinds especially 

 propagate on sandy soils. 



One May afternoon, chancing to pass under the shadow of 

 some stunted beeches in the grounds of Ochtertyre, Perthshire, 

 at about 3 o'clock p.m., I espied a male of a small Dung Beetle 

 [Geotrupes vernalis), there common in the woods, chasing its 

 female and uttering at intervals a plaintive buzzing cry ; while 

 the latter, with feminine tact, Daphne-like, eluded his pursuit, 

 and eventually took to burrowing in the loose carpet of feathery 

 moss, under which they then both disappeared. This circum- 

 stance goes to prove a sound can be uttered by the male of this 

 beetle as a call- note ; but since the stridor is produced equally 

 well by the female, we are led to the inquiry whether the stridula- 

 tion may not supplement the gregariousness due to scent in 

 these scavengers. For, as is known, when a Dung Beetle is 

 picked up on the road and held in the hand extending its legs, 

 it simulates death, and utters a creak intimating perception of 

 fear ; but if we enclose a number of these in a box, they, with- 

 out fail, one and all, commence stridulating loudly, the female 

 seeking to escape by burrowing downward, and the male by 

 taking wing to the light. 



The rounded, somewhat /"-shaped limse in the species of 

 Geotrupes, were discovered by Herr Westring. They form 

 sharpish ridges crossing the inferior coxal surface, converge 

 posteriorly, and are furnished wath parallel striae (Plate III., 

 Pio". 1, I). These are worked by the beetles in faint grooves [s) 

 on the surface of the third ventral arc, and passed obliquely 

 over a minute, thin, horny ridge at their posterior edge by pro- 

 trusion and recession of the abdomen. The music resulting may 

 be fairly reproduced with a quill, or by rubbing the abdomen 

 against the limse. The organs effecting it vary in the species. 



