ORDER I. BEETLES. 45 



into alcohol, and by making artificial heads and bodies out 

 of cork, and then painting them and fastening the wings to 

 them with gum-arabic. 



In order, therefore, to prevent your cases of insects from 

 being destroyed by this Cabinet Beetle, it is necessary to 

 have the lining- of the boxes, whether it be of cork or wax, 

 well impregnated with spirits of turpentine, and, besides 

 this, it will be v/ell to fasten in each corner of the box a 

 pin with a small piece of sponge attached to it, which may 

 be saturated from time to time with the same fluid, or with 

 spirits of camphor. The latter, however, can not be used 

 in cases which contain butterflies, as the evaporation of 

 camphor will make their colors fade. The cases them- 

 selves, as a matter of course, should be made as tight as 

 possible, in order to prevent the entrnnce of any living in- 

 sect. 



The larva of the Cabinet Beetle is two lines in length, 

 and has on each side of the body little bundles of reddish- 

 brown hairs, which, when disturbed, it erects in the same 

 manner as the Porcupine does its quills. These larvae are 

 sometimes seen upon our walls looking out for dead insects. 



The Carrion Beetles {Silphce) have a broad body, with 

 a shield-like thorax, upon which is a declining head with 

 strong jaws, and with antennoe terminating in a knob. A 

 great number of species are found every where in North 

 America, among which are, for instance, the 



Silpha marginalis, 

 " in^qualis, 

 " Surinamensis, 

 " Americana, etc. ; 



but as the habits and character of one species are identical 

 with all the others, the representation and description of 

 one will serve for all the rest. 



The Crusader Carrion Beetle {Silpha Americana) is 

 more than half an inch long, has a black head, yellow tho- 



