200 



four or five hours. We felt quite sure about its being dead now, 

 and so pinned it and placed it in a small collecting box with some 

 others. Two days after we had occasion to open the box and found 

 the beetle walking about over the other insects in its usual blunder- 

 ing fashion, with the pin in it, and destroying a good deal more 

 than what it was worth. A dip into boiling water was resorted to 

 at last, and this is the most certain method of kiUing large beetles. 

 We have known specimens of Rhagium inquisitor, one of the wood 

 boring beetles, stay for twenty four hours in the laurel box without 

 seeming to suffer any inconvenience from it. Also belonging to 

 this section of beetles is the Scarabseus, the Sacred Beetle of the 

 Egyptians, a rude representation of which may be seen in Mr. R. S. 

 Ferguson's case of Egyptian curiosities. 



Of the next section of beetles, the Sternoxia, we shall take one 

 beetle to represent it, that is the well known Skipjack, to be found 

 almost everywhere, but very abundant in particular localities 

 We have seen it on a bright June morning on the lower slopes of 

 High St., Kid sty Pike, &c., Hterally in hundreds. This is the 

 acrobat among beetles, and to see it jump four or five times its 

 own height in the air when laid on its back is rather amusing. 

 This spring is accompanied by a sound which resembles the word 

 click or crick, and from this peculiarity, in Westmorland it gets the 

 name of Crick Neck. The larva of the Skipjack is one of the 

 wire worms so much dreaded by farmers and gardeners, a specimen 

 of which we have mounted for the microscope. 



Two more beetles out of the next section, Malacodermata, or 

 soft skinned beetles, and we have done. The first we shall allude 

 to is the well known glowworm (Lampyris noctiluca) ; and never 

 shall we forget the pleasure derived from first finding this insect on 

 the banks of the Chalk, a small river a few miles from this city, 

 though at that time we were not aware it was a wingless female 

 beetle. Certainly the male shows a small light, but nothing com- 

 pared with the female, and it is the female which is popularly 

 called the Glowworm. The male beetle is a perfect insect, much 

 rarer than the female, and seldom captured. This beetle divides 

 the honours, if not taking the first place in poesy, with the Dor 



