434 



Marvels of Insect Life. 



M.iiu. /•"./•:. s. 



the ])crfect form, but are in a lethargic 

 condition, in which they remain 

 until June, when thev make their 

 way out into the public view. In 

 this emergence the males precede the 

 females by several days. 



i\ttention should be drawn to the 

 remarkable form of the antennae, 

 wliich characterizes three families of 

 beetles, and reaches its highest de- 

 velopment in the cockchafer and its 

 immediate allies. In the stag-beetle 

 The Kentish Glory. the last four joints are very broad in 



The photograph represents the finely marked female moth. The male onC dirCCtlon, SO that tllCy look likc 

 is much smaller and less brigbtlv coloured, though it has lint-r antenna'. 



Natural size. a kind of brusli with a long handle. 



It is probable that these differently shaped terminal joints are the seat of some 

 special sense, but what that sense is has not yet been determined. 



The stag-beetles are a numerous family, there being nearly si.x hundi-ed species 

 known from various parts of the world. There are only two other British species, 

 neither of which is sufficiently known to have had any popular name bestowed upon 

 it. It must be confessed that the scientific men have tried their best to make 

 up for the deficiency by giving both fine-sounding names with a fair number of 

 syllables.^ The word dorcus applied to one of these is evidently from the Greek 

 for an antelope, but it is not easy to see why it is so called. It is about an inch 

 long, and much like a diminutive stag-beetle, except that the mandibles of the 

 male are onlv as large as those of a female stag-beetle. In both sexes the colour 

 is black, and there is no difference in size except that the hind-body and wing- 

 covers are broader in the female. The grub is somewhat similar to that of the 

 stag-beetle, and feeds internally on the wood of decaying willow, beech, and oak. 

 The French call it La Petite BicJie. 



The third species, w^hose scientific name signifies the wood-destroyer, is a smaller 

 Insect, little more than half an inch long, shining black, minutely pitted on the 

 fore-body, which has its front part cut away abruptly and forming live small tooth- 

 like projections. Th'^ little head ends in a curved upright horn suggestive of that 



of the rhinoceros in the male ; but 



in the female 

 and straight, 

 the little pits 



Pholoby] [H. Main, F.l 



Eggs of Kentish Glory. 



The large eggs are laid along the twigs of birch trees, usually ii 

 row. At first grein, they change in tint to ))urpl"-brovvn 

 enlarged to twice the natural size. 



it is much shortrr 

 On the wing-covers 

 ire larger and run 

 one into another. The grub, wliich 

 li\'es in decaying ash, willow, and 

 other trees, is somewhat like that 

 of the stag-beetle, excej)! that its 

 hinder })arts are not swollen— it is 

 indeed narrower there than behind 

 the head. 



Dorcus parallclopipedus and SinodciKlron cylindricum. 



Thev are here 



