30 



INSECTS ABROAD. 



being both elegant in shape and splendid in colour. Moreover, 

 its chief residence is Mount Parnassus. Indeed, so gorgeous is 

 the colouring, that it really looks like a tropical insect. 



As is often the case with Ground Beetles, this insect is 

 exceedingly variable both in size and details of colour. Some 

 specimens are scarcely as large as our common violet Ground 

 Beetle, while others are fully twice as large. Then, the hues 

 with which the body is adorned are equally variable. Usually, 

 however, the middle of the body and elytra are deep black, which 

 melts almost imperceptibly into green bronze, becoming fiery 

 red along the edges of the thorax and elytra, the former of 



l'Vi. 8.— ( 'malms Adonis. 

 (Bronze-green, red edges. 



which is much flattened on the outer edges. In some specimens 

 the whole of the thorax is bronze. 



There is, I believe, scarcely one species of Carabus which 

 does not develop colour of some kind, and such colours are 

 invariably deep and metallic, so deep, indeed, that unless ex- 

 amined closely and with a favourable light, they really seem to 

 be black. A good collection of Carabi is quite as splendid a 

 sight as one of Tiger Beetles, and it is interesting to compare 

 the two families, and see how differently the same colours can 

 be developed. The very same lines of blue, green, gold, bronze, 

 violet, purple, and crimson, which are found in the Tiger 

 Beetles, are also found in the Carabi, the principal distinction 

 being, that in the former Insects the colours all have a vel- 

 vety or satiny aspect, while in the latter they are shining like 



polished metal. 



