. SMELL IN INSECTS. .5i5 



(Calosoma inquisitor, Weber), larg-er than itself, 

 which hunts it without mercy. As it finds it impos- 

 sible to escape by speed of foot, it stops short, and 

 awaits its pursuer; but just as he is about to seize 

 it, he is saluted with a discharg-e, and while he is for 

 a moment stupified with surprise, the bombardier en- 

 deavours to gain a hiding-place. Another species (B. 

 displosor) can direct its smoke, according- to report, 

 to any particular point, by bending itself in the re- 

 quired direction. M. Leon Dufour says the smoke 

 has a pungent odour, similar to nitric acid, and it 

 reddens white paper *. 



It is right to inform our younger readers, who 

 may be desirous of witnessing the performance of 

 this Lilliputian artilleryman, that he is not always 

 prepared, or at least in the humour, to tire his guns ; 

 for we have in several instances been disappointed 

 when we wished to exhibit the phenomena f. It 

 may have been in consequence of such accidental 

 disappointment that Millard, a practical collector of 

 insects, has been led to treat the whole as little better 

 than a fable |. " I presume," says Stephens, " that 

 this author must have laboured under some delusion, 

 or has not paid that attention to the subject which 

 appears requisite before attempting to controvert a 

 well established fact. So far as my experience leads 

 me, I have invariably found that the insects are ready 

 to discharge their ammunition at all times, especially 

 if roughly handled ; and Mr. Cooper informs me that 

 one he met with at Cobham, in the beginning of the 

 present spring, performed the operation no less than 

 thirteen limes in rapid succession §." The whole 

 proceedings of these beetles strikingly resemble those 

 of the American weasel, called the skunk {Viverra 



* Annales du Museum, xviii. 70. f J. R. 



. '^ Outlines of British Entomology, p. 221. 



§ Illustr. i. 35. 



