December 81, 1874. ] 



JOURNAL OP HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 



591 



might be thought lesa exposed to dangers than larger epeoiea 

 of animals, keep themselves carefully concealed from view 

 during a great part or the whole of their life. Walking 

 through lanes, woods, or fields, a very slight amount of ob- 

 servation acquaints us with what quadrupeds or birds may be 

 about, but it needs paina and trouble to find out the insects. 

 So it is also, in a measure, with regard to the habitants of 

 the garden, where if, as it may be, there is a smaller average 

 of insects when the ground is properly looked after, those 

 that are present are well up in the art of hiding. This may 

 indeed be truly said both of our friends and our foes, the 

 former also very frequently displaying much caution, not so 

 much from dread of man as from an instinct leading them to 

 endeavour to surprise their prey. Oar most conspicuous 

 friends, of course, are the various flower-fertilisers, of some of 

 which we have spoken, and their habits necessitate their ex- 

 hibiting themselves, oft-times to 

 the advantage of birds and pre- 

 dacious insects. 



The Drowsy Dor (Geotrupea 

 stereorarius), called by several 

 English appellations, one rather 

 contradictory to the first given 

 — namely, the "Flying Watch- 

 man," if not always seen is heard 

 and felt, as it has a particular 

 fancy for knocking itself wildly 

 against by-passers at the hour of 

 eve, thereby gaining their anathe- 

 mas. In the day we not uncom- 

 monly see it by roadsides, appa- 

 rently, one would think, intent 

 upon suicide from the reckless 

 way in which it crawls along places 

 where it ia likely to be stepped 

 upon. The truth is, perhaps, 

 that from most birds these in- 

 sects deem themselves secure (if 

 they think at all), through their 

 dull colours and horny armour, 

 and yet there are hu'ds that seize 

 and break them up. The sight 

 of a Dor the other morning toil- 

 ing over a piece of garden ground 

 freshly manured, not like Atlaa 

 with the world on his back, but 

 with a flat mass of the substance, 

 which hid the beetle completely, 

 and presented the odd sight of an 

 inanimate object moving, seem- 

 ingly without anyone impelling 

 it, reminded me that the un- 

 pleasant-looking stercoraceous 

 beetles are useful as disintegra- 

 tors or decomposers of manure. 

 They ply their trade in more ways 

 than one according to oircum- 



stanoes ; and though they eagerly pounce upon freshly-dropped 

 dung, and adapt it to the uses of their progeny, the Dors 

 also visit dried manure, and no doubt help to bring about 

 chemical changes in it, rendering it nutritive to the soO. 

 Foreign species, as shown in our illustration, form balls or 

 pellets of dung, and roll these in concert — a habit reported of 

 our own species of Geotrupes, but not confirmed. Their ordinary 

 models to drive burrows or tunnels under the manure, carrying 

 down the subatance, and depoaiting eggs therein. Occasion- j 

 ally, like my acquaintance of the other morning, the beetles i 

 carry or push masses of dung to a spot where they wish to 

 burrow for some reason best known to themselves. It is ' 

 needlesa to describe a beetle familiar to most residents in the 

 country. One of its peculiarities is to be much infested with 

 brown parasites, which cling determinedly to the under aide. 

 On the earth the Dor moves clumsily ; as Mr. Staveley says, | 

 " It occasionally stops to give one leg or other a kind of weak 

 flourish in the air, lilce an old gentleman talking to himself, 

 and suiting the action to the word." This may be an ex- 

 perimental process just to see that hia limbs are all right for i 

 some effort of strength. That the beetle has really plenty of ! 

 muscle we can easily know by laying hold of it. The larva 

 life probably lasts more than one season ; the whitish, rather 

 flabby grub when unearthed by the gnrdener is likely enough 

 to be taken for the injurious grub of the common cockchafer. ] 



Somewhat like the Dor beetles in habit are the smaller 

 species we call the "Mimic" beetles, because on any slight 

 alarm the individuals at once pretend to be dead, and as they 

 lie prostrate on the ground they might be passed over as tiny 

 black pebbles. They are not singular, however, in this habit, 

 aa many beetles feign death or insensibility, with some amount 

 of artifice too. Thus the common Pill Beetle (Byrrhus pilula), is 

 actually formed, as we might aay, to be a mimic. The legs 

 alide into groovea under the body, and hide away lUce the joints 

 of a portable easle, while the head is hidden under the thorax. 

 The body also being downy accumulates a little dust during 

 the beetle's journeys hither and thither; so that altogether 

 the resemblance of this insect to a small stone is very close, 

 it cannot be asserted to be so much lilio a pill or bolus. Re- 

 turning to the Histerida:, familiarly called the " Mimics," it is 

 to be particularly noticed that these beetles have such hard 



Fig. 1C7.— The Sacbed Beetle (Ateuchna Bacor). 



wing-cases as to turn the point of an ordinary pin. Some are 

 rather handsome, such as the Four-spot Mimic (H. quadrima- 

 culatus), with steely-black elytra, a reddish marginal line, 

 and a blotch of red on each elytron or wing-case. Though 

 small in size, only a few lines in length mostly, the Histerida> 

 do service through their being numerous, and they not only 

 resort to manure but help to dispose of small dead animals. 

 They are provided with ample wings, of much service to 

 creatures whose habits, like those of the vultures, require that 

 they should be able to proceed rapidly from place to place. 

 The larva! of these beetles are slender, whitish, and wormlike, 

 with six not very obvious legs. The tail in several of the 

 species haa a forked appendage. 



There is a small beetle so little known to most people that 

 it has got no English name, which deserves much encourage- 

 ment if one knew how to give it. This is scientifically de- 

 signated Drilus flavesoens, and ia related to the glow-worm. 

 Though not rare it ia hard to find, but on examining a male 

 apecimen we perceive it is not devoid of beauty, being marked 

 with yellow, brown, and black; the antennfo are also most 

 delicately fringed. The females are wingless, long-bodied, and 

 have very small heads, yet armed with very sharp mandibles. 

 This sex is much more difficult to detect than is the male 

 Drilua, and it is really not improbable that, even by ento- 

 mologists, it is passed over as a grub. The special business 



