RARITY OF THE HORNET BEETLE. 75 



Even now that the locality of this Beetle is known, to secure 

 a specimen is no easy matter. In the first place, it is a very 

 exceptional piece of good fortune to find a hornets' nest that 

 contains a Quedius dilatatus, as I can testify from personal 

 experience, having seen plenty of hornets' nests and never seen 

 a living specimen of this Beetle ; and in the next place, a 

 hornets' nest cannot be taken likt- tliiit cf the wasp. To take a 

 wasps' nest is a very easy business, as the wasps always rest at 

 night, and their fortress can be stormed without the least 

 danger. But hornets have an un comfortable plan of working 

 by night as well as by day, so that no small risk has to be nm 

 by anyone who tries to take t he nest of a hornet. Moreover, 

 whereas wasps usually make i heir nests in the ground, where 

 Ihey can easily be dug out, hornets generally make theirs in 

 the hollows of trees, and often at a considerable height from 

 tlie ground, so that they cannot be extracted without the use of 

 saw, mallet, and chisel. The late Mr. F. Stone, who probably 

 had more experience with wa.-'t.is and liornets than any other 

 naturalist, told me that, if he began to cut out a hornets' nest 

 at midnight, he never expected to finish his task until six or 

 seven next morning, exposed the while to the attacks of hornets 

 that had been out to collect food or material. So it is no 

 wonder that Quedius dilatatus should be a valuable acqui- 

 sition, even though we do know where to find it. 



The Beetle, however, does not restrict itself to the hornet, 

 but is sometimes parasitic on the caterpillar of the goat-moth. 

 In this case, though the task of getting it out of the tree is not 

 so dangerous as in the case when it quarters itself on the 

 hornet, it is quite as tedious and fatiguing. 



One species of this genus, Quedius brevis, is to be found in the 

 nests of the wood-ant {Formica rufa). One of these Beetles is 

 shown on Plate XI. The length of this insect is about half an 

 inch, and its elytra are brick-red. 



The family of the Staphylinidse, which comes next in order, 

 contains the largest species of this group of Beetles, some of 

 them reaching, or even slightly exceeding, an inch in length. 

 They may be known by several peculiarities of structure. The 

 antennae are set far apart, their junction with the head being 

 in front, within the base of the mandibles, which are large and 



