More Beetles 



when addicted to chopping off each other's 

 legs and antennae. If I do not isolate my 

 subjects one by one in strong paper bags, I 

 am certain, on returning from my nocturnal 

 expeditions, to find none but cripples in my 

 box. The mandibular knife has done furi- 

 ous execution on the way. Almost all the 

 insects are the poorer by at least a leg. 



In the wire cage, with chips of old willow- 

 wood for a refuge and figs, pears and other 

 fruits for food, they are less intolerant. 

 For three or four days, my captives betray 

 great excitement at nightfall. They run 

 swiftly along the trellised dome, quarrelling 

 as they go, hiring one another, striking at 

 one another with their cleavers. In the ab- 

 sence of females, almost undiscoverable at 

 the time of my visits, which are possibly not 

 late enough, I have not been able to observe 

 their nuptials; but I have seen acts of brutal- 

 ity that tell me something of what I want to 

 know. No less expert in chopping off legs 

 than his kinsman of the pines, the ^Egosoma 

 should also be somewhat deficient in gallan- 

 try. I picture him beating his wife and crip- 

 pling her a little, not without himself receiv- 

 ing his share of wounds. 



If these were Longicorn affairs, the scan- 

 192 



