30 INSECTS AT HOME. 



For examining- the details of a Beetle, especially if it be a 

 small one, a pocket lens is required. These instruments are 

 made with either two or three glasses, and are small enough 

 to be suspended to the watch-chain by a ring. In order to 

 examine a Beetle witli ease, the pin should be stuck into a 

 cork cemented on a flat piece of lead, so that it cannot be 

 knocked over. My own instrument is made of a champagne 

 cork, cut into a cylindrical form and rounded on the top. I pre- 

 fer tlie champagne cork for two reasons — the first being that it 

 is of an uniform and close texture, without the holes and hard 

 spots which are found in ordinary corks, and the second being 

 that it has not been pierced with the corkscrew. 



Only one other English genus belongs to this family, namely, 

 the genus Dyschirius. All its members are very brilliant, very 

 active, and very small, the largest being barely one-sixth of an 

 inch in length. Small as they are, they are as ferocious as the 

 Tiger Beetles, and are most persevering in their chase of prey, 

 which mostly consists of Beetles belonging to the Brachelytra. 

 There are several Beetles belonging to the genus Bledius oi" 

 Hesperophilus, which inhabit the sandy shores, and live in 

 small burrows which they make in the sand just above high- 

 water mark. On these little insects the Dyschirii feed, chasing 

 them through their tunnels just as weasels chase rats. 



All these Beetles are cylindrical, and their surface has a sort 

 of brassy polish. The mandibles are stout, very sharp, and 

 toothed at the base. The antennae are slender, with the second 

 joint the longest, and the thorax is globular. 



