ODOUK OF TIGER BEETLES. 9 



rather a clumsy look. Their legs are exceedingly long, and, 

 indeed, it is not easy to say whether the large head, or the long 

 and slender legs, first catch the eye. They are winged, but their 

 wings are not nearly so long or so strong as those of our British 

 Tiger Beetles, so that they are more to be found on the earth 

 than in the air. 



There is one species, indeed, Megacephala sepulehralis, a native 

 of Brazil, which appears never to take to the wing, but runs 

 very swiftly through the grass that grows on sandy soil in 

 the forests. Most of the Tiger Beetles have a similar habit, 

 and these insects are therefore often called by the popular name 

 of Sand-runners, or Sand Beetles. This species gives out a per- 

 fume which much resembles attar of roses, but which changes 

 after death to a very fcetid and disagreeable odour. The reader 

 may perhaps remember that our common British Tiger Beetle 

 exhales a strong and pleasing scent like that of crushed verbena 

 plants, but happily, unlike the Brazilian insect, the odour does 

 not become unpleasant after death. 



The accompanying illustration represents the largest of these 

 insects, a very giant 

 among its kin, drawn 

 of its natural size. 

 Its name is Mega- 

 cephala Senrgahnsis, 

 and, as the latter 

 word implies, is a 

 native of Senegal. 



As is often the case 



With Tiger Beetles, Fl(; _ 2 . -Megacephala Seiiegalensis. 



there is considerable 



variation in colour. The thorax, however, is always green and 

 shining, and the elytra are always roughly punctated, i.e. 

 covered with tiny holes as if the point of a blunt needle had 

 been slightly pressed into the surface. There are very few 

 Beetles which are entirely without these punctures, whose use, 

 1 believe, has never yet been ascertained or even conjectured ; 

 but in some species they assume a very decided importance, the 

 interior of each puncture being brightly coloured, while the 

 general surface is simply dull brown or black. "We shall soon 



