ORDER I. COLEOPTERA. 75 



form of insect's hair, and may be seen in the fur of bees, 

 the spines of caterpillars, &c. But the grub in question is 

 also furnished with tufts of hairs of another form. These 

 are clothed with whorls of minuter hairs placed at regu- 

 lar intervals round the shaft Towards the tip this 

 suddenly enlarges into a somewhat heart-shaped body, 

 above which a number of slender appendages, each 

 attached by a point near their summit and spreading 



Fig. 35. 



Hair of Dermestes. 



out at their base, form a most exquisite pinnacle to the 

 whole. To what purpose is this extraordinary structure? 



The ferocious looking " Devil's coachhorse," (PI. I. fig. 

 6), is a familiar example of a tribe of beetles distinguished 

 by the shortness of their wing-cases, and which form the 

 third Subdivision, Brachelytra (Bpaxvc, short; "EXur/oov, 

 iving-sheath) . It is a long slender black creature, some- 

 thing like an enormous black earwig, but without the tail 

 forceps, with a curious habit of turning up its tail, and 

 opening its jaws when in expectation of an attack. 

 Nothing comes amiss to this harpy, which will attack 

 and devour almost any other insect, and has been seen 

 feeding on young toads and other such animals. 



A larva, not more than half an inch long, of a species 

 allied to this, was once seen to kill and drag into its hole 

 an earthworm which was eighteen times heavier than itself! 



When not predaceous, the beetles of this tribe feed 

 chiefly on dead animal matter, dung, &c. ; and some 

 species (as is the case with the preceding carrion beetles) 



