Ground Beetles. 



:M 



Ground-Beetles. 



The numerous family of beetles so-named are to be reckoned among the best 

 friends of the gardener and farmer, though it is to be feared that they are seldom 

 treated as such. Something like thirteen thousand distinct species of the family 

 have been named and described from all parts of the world, and in this country 

 alone we have over three hundred 

 representatives. It might be ex- 

 pected that in so large a family 

 considerable variety of habits would 

 be found ; and it is so. The vast 

 majoritv of them feed on animal 

 food and hunt for it, attacking the 

 living to obtain it, but not dis- 

 daining it if they find it already 

 dead. But there are exceptions to 

 thih rule, and a few of them have 

 eating vegetable 

 growing corn, and 

 have been accused 

 of a reprehensible weakness for ripe 

 strawberries. Yet when we have 

 made allowance for these few black 

 sheep in an enormous fiock, we may 

 still regard the family as most 

 valuable allies of the husbandman 

 in all his variety. 



]\Iost of the ground-beetles, ^ 

 as their name indicates, live a sub- 

 terranean life, and have become 

 so habituated to it that they have 

 ceased to develop wings. There are 

 strong, hard, and to all apj^earance, 

 well-linished wing-cases, but in the 

 majority of species these only ser\e 

 to protect the back in their burrowing 

 operations, for the edges are united 



been detected 

 matter, such as 

 several of them 



Tin-: TiUK Katydid. 



This is tlu' Ins 



t wlios'' constantly repeated call has earned for it 

 a name, and given it a place in literatim'. U isa native of the southern 

 and eastern parts of the United States. The upper example with 

 closed wings is the male, the lower with spread wings is the female. 

 It is only the male that says " Katv did," but the female makes a short 

 answering chirp. 



;reat agility. In 



the tropics, however, there are a number of species that \\vv among the foliage of 

 trees, and these have well-developed wings, which they n>r Ireely. Some that keep 

 much underground have shorter and stouter lc>gs, more litted for digging than 

 runninij-. 



and they cannot be lifted to disclose 

 the absence of flight-wings. When 

 they arc not actually underground 

 they are no further away than the surface, where the\' run witl 



1 Carabidae. 



