512 LOCAL DISTRIBUTION OF INSECTS. 



when the grass is grown up, insects are fond of alighting 

 upon its spikes, and thence drop or run to the ground. 

 Should circumstances e\ T er carry you abroad to the 

 steppes or grassy plains of Tartary, or to Hungary, you 

 would find there two or three species of the singular ge- 

 nus Lethrus, which burrows in the soil. Every hole is 

 inhabited by a male and female; from it they issue to 

 attack the plants or vines; and having cut out the heart 

 of a plant, go backwards like a crab with the prize to 

 their burrow. At the time of pairing, sometimes violent 

 battles, encouraged by the female, take place between the 

 male and a stranger of that sex desirous of admission, 

 which cease only with the death or flight of the stranger a . 

 The vicinity and borders of woods generally abound in 

 insects of every Order ; and if you proceed, as hereafter 

 directed, will furnish you with numerous prizes, espe- 

 cially of Lepidoptera. Here alone you can meet with the 

 purple emperor butterfly (Apatura Iris}; and if properly 

 equipped you may readily secure him. 



The waters you will find nearly as prolific in insects as 

 the land. In them, amongst the beetles, you may expect 

 to meet with Dytiscus, Haliplus, Ptelobius, Hyphydrus, 

 Hydroporus, Noterus, Colymbetes, and other Dytiscida; 

 the Gyrini, Hydrophili, Hydr<zn&, Elophorz, &c. : under 

 stones, the Elmis ; and in the mud, the Parni and He- 

 teroceri. Some Spliceridiada a're also aquatic : I have 

 taken more than once Cercyon htemorrhoidale from the 

 under side of a piece of wood immersed in a canal b . 

 Even a few of the weevil tribes are to be met with in 



a Fischer, Entomogr. Russ. i. 135. 



b From finding it in water, Fabricius considered this insect as a 

 Hydrophilus, but it is a true Cercyon. 



