230 MEANS OF DEFENCE OF INSECTS. 



beetle (Aleochara complicans, K. Ms.) to which my at- 

 tention was attracted as a very minute, shining, round, 

 black pebble. This successful imitation was produced 

 by folding its head under its breast, and turning up its 

 abdomen over its elytra ; so that the most piercing and 

 discriminating eye would never have discovered it to be 

 an insect. I have observed that a carrion beetle (Silpha 

 thoracica) when alarmed has recourse to a similar ma- 

 noeuvre. Its orange-coloured thorax, the rest of the body 

 being black, renders it particularly conspicuous. To 

 obviate this inconvenience, it turns its head and tail in- 

 wards till they are parallel with the trunk and abdomen, 

 and gives its thorax a vertical direction, when it resem- 

 bles a rough stone. The species of another genus of 

 beetles (Agathidiuni) will also bend both head and thorax 

 under the elytra, and so assume the appearance of shining 

 globular pebbles. 



Related to the defensive attitude of the two last-men- 

 tioned insects, and precisely the same with that of the 

 Armadillo (Dasypus) amongst quadrupeds, is that of one 

 of the species of woodlouse (Armadillo vulgar is}. This 

 insect when alarmed rolls itself up into a little ball. In 

 this attitude its legs and the underside of the body, which 

 are soft, are entirely covered and defended by the hard 

 crust that forms the upper surface of the animal. These 

 balls are perfectly spherical, black, and shining, and 

 belted with narrow white bands, so as to resemble beau- 

 tiful beads ; and could they be preserved in this form 

 and strung, would make very ornamental necklaces and 

 bracelets. At least so thought Swammerdam's maid, 

 who, finding a number of these insects thus rolled up in 

 her master's garden, mistaking them for beads, employed 



