Ixxil 
gone from it. Specimens of this beetle have, however, become scarce in-all the former 
spots, on account of the traffic and disturbance of their places of rest; but on the 17th 
of November, 1866, I searched a large untilled paddock of about 134 acres, west of 
Adelaide, where cattle had grazed for some years, and obtained seven specimens of 
this Cerapterus; this was one specimen to about thirty or forty of their domiciles that 
T turned over, and all were found alone. I am not aware of any account of the habits 
of these Pausside having been published. There is a note in the Addenda to West- 
wood’s ‘Modern Classification, stating that Mr. Macleay’s brother had fonnd an 
Australian species of Cerapterus residing in ants’ nests: it is not said what kind of 
ant, the white (Termes) or the common (Formica): I suppose the former ; if otherwise, 
the circumstance is quite unknown to me. Should the habits of the Cerapterus (of 
N.S. Wales?) be the same as here, I fancy this remark is an error from cursory 
observation. I think the Cerapteri only use their dry coverings as places of shelter, 
though how they come there and why first found there I confess I cannot tell. 
Perhaps they fly at night and hide in the day. I observed on this and former 
occasions the following facts: the white ants are in these plains found nowhere but 
under drying cow-dung; still hundreds of pieces in the most favourable conditions are 
without them. In the present case four of the pieces under which the Cerapteri were 
found had white ants under them, and three had not. Each of the beetles was lying 
under his canopy in a small depression of the ground, or with the earth slightly raised 
round him, and was always perfectly still: where there were ants they appeared to 
have no connexion with the beetle or in any way to disturb him or be aware of his 
presence, though running about when the coverings were raised. I also observed that 
where no ants were with the other Cerapteri there evidently never had been any. 
Nearly all these seven specimens on being disturbed or lifted by me crepitated several 
times, some as many as three times, before immersion in the methylated spirit I had 
with me, at the same time discharging from some part of the body a yellow fluid, 
which stained the abdomen and last pair of legs, but disappeared on immersion in the 
spirit. 
* Calosoma Curtisii—To obtain this species of Carabide I had to go three miles 
nearer to the gulf, to a place called the Reed Beds, a large tract of land several miles 
square, extending in sume parts nearly to the gulf, and obtaining its name from several 
acres of reeds still growing at its furthest extremity. I have before given some remarks 
on the habits of this species, which 1 beg to refer to (see Proc. for 1864), and will now 
supplement. Though formerly, as there mentioned, rather numerous, and one year 
particularly so, at the foot of the North Adelaide hills, they seem almost entirely to — 
have deserted them. As with the Cerapterus, the presence of cattle seems necessary 
to their maintenance, and though on the former occasions I found them mostly running 
about, and very seldom under dry cow-dung, I have reason from this day’s observation 
(November 17, 1866) to think that they lay their eggs beneath it. In November, 
1864, I captured near the Reed Beds as many as twenty-two; this was at a farm 
where many cows were kept, sandy iu some parts, but good soil in others. Rather late 
in November, 1865, I repaired to the same spot, but did not find a single specimen; 
that, however, was a year of drought. The favourable and long-protracted rains of 
this year made me hope better things, and I was not disappointed. I took in about an 
hour and a half, from a space somewhat less than an acre, sixty-five of the Calusoma. 
’ Nearly all of them were under the half-dried cow-dung; under the first I lifted were 
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