94 FAMILIES CICINDELIDAE AND CARABIDAE 



tunnels in wet sand or soil near rivers and streams, and live in these, 

 preying^ upon such insects as come near them. 



The bright-coloured insect Cicindela octonotata, Wied., is common on 

 the stony river-beds and banks of the Sunkos, Reidak, and other rivers in 

 Assam, where I have taken it in numbers in the latter part of May. 

 C. sexpiinctata is a common little cicindelid found in the rice fields and often 

 on the borders of the forest. 



Family CARABIDAE. 



{Ground Beetlea.) 



The Carabidae are a predaceous family of beetles closely allied to the 

 Cicindelidae, and having the long curved biting man- 

 Beetle, dibles of the latter, from which they may be distinguished 

 by the fact that the clypeus does not stretch laterally in 

 front of the insertion of the antennae and the maxillae are not hooked. The 

 tarsi are five-jointed and the antennae are filiform, and thus the insects can 

 be distinguished from the Tenebrionidae (p. 232), which in their dark colouring 

 and shape they otherwise to some extent resemble. The beetle is compact 

 in form, with close-fitting elytra, often more oval than in the cicindelids. 

 The elytra are occasionally, as in tenebrionids, soldered together, with no 

 wings for flight below. In many forms the legs are long and adapted 

 for running, in others short and fitted for digging. The colours are usually 

 dull black, brown, or greyish, with occasionally spots of yellow or white. 



Little is known about the larvae of the family. They are supposed to 

 be uniformly predaceous, furnished with a large head and 

 Larva. powerful mandibles, the rest of the grub tapering pos- 



teriorly, dull brown or black in colour, the last segment 

 ending in a pair of cerci : three pairs of walking legs are present on the 

 thoracic segments. 



The habits of some of the beetles are known, the insects preying upon 

 other insect life either during the daytime or at night. Some forms have 



been found under the bark of trees feeding upon 

 bark- and wood-boring beetles, etc., and the whole 

 life of these species may be passed within the tree. 

 Others have been found in the soil. 



Calosoma orientale, Hope. 



Reference. — Hope, Trans. Zool. Soc. i, p. 92. 



Habitat. — Peshawar and elsewhere in Northern 

 India. 



Fig. s9.~Ca/oso;m! orien- Habits.— This carabid has been reported to prey 



tah', Hope. N. India. upon the young of the locust Schistoccra percgrina. 



