CHAPTER [II. 



GROUND BEETLES, OR CJRABID.E. 



This great family of Beetles is quite equal in importance to the 

 preceding, but in one point of view it presents a curious contrast 

 to the Cicindelidse. 



In England we possess but very few Tiger Beetles, none of 

 them being brilliantly coloured, whereas the exotic Tiger Beetles 

 outnumber ours by some twenty times, and exhibit a brilliancy 

 and variety of colouring which none of the English varieties 

 possess. Our seven little soberly-clad species look very insig- 

 nificant beside the array of exotic Cicindelidas, with all their 

 flashing suits of azure, green, gold, and crimson. But when we 

 come to the Carabidse, the case is nearly reversed. None of the 

 tropical countries can produce any species that can surpass our 

 familiar violet Ground Beetle, and the handsomest of all the 

 foreign Carabidse is one that is a comparatively near neighbour 

 of ours, being an inhabitant of Italy. Altogether, some three 

 thousand species are known to entomologists, so that we can 

 only select a few of the most conspicuous examples. 



The first is called Procerus tauricus, and lives, as its specific 

 name implies, on the banks of the Bosphorus. It is an example 

 of the genus to which belong the largest and handsomest speci- 

 mens of this family, and which have been separated from the 

 rest, not on account of their size, but on account of the structure 

 of their feet. In the generality of the Carabi, the joints of the 

 front tarsi are flattened and widened in the males, while they 

 are cylindrical in the females. The Beetles, however, of which 

 we are treating, have the joints cylindrical in both sexes, and 

 they are on that account grouped together in the genus called 

 Procerus. This word is Greek, signifying " a herald," and is given 



