BOMBAKDIEK BEETLES. 35 



relative, the Damaster, for its outlines are all graceful, and its 

 colour peculiarly intense. The hue of this Beetle is the deepest 

 purple- violet, the colour being almost painfully splendid in a 

 brilliant light. The thorax has more blue in it than the elytra, 

 which are deeply and rather coarsely granulated in longitudinal 

 lines, so as to add to the vividness of the purple. 



On looking at this Beetle from above, it seems to be a very 

 bulky one; but when viewed sideways, its body is seen to be 

 curiously Hat, the depth ■ 

 being apparently quite 

 disproportionate to the ■ 

 width. The object of this 

 structure is evidently to 

 enable the Beetle to creep 

 beneath stones, under 

 bark, and so to hide itself 

 where a stouter insect 

 could not enter. The spe- fig. n.— cychrua vidua. 



cific name vidua is Latin efcp pmp 



(the " vidder" of Mr. Weller), and has been given to the insect 

 on account of the very dark colour of its surface. 



It has already been mentioned that the Carabidae have the 

 power of ejecting a noisome liquid when alarmed. Both from 

 the mouth and the tail proceeds this weapon of defence, and in 

 some of the species this latter liquid is so volatile, that when it 

 comes into contact with the air it explodes with a slight report, 

 leaving a cloud of thin smoke. This is specially the case with 

 the tribe of Brachinides, of which our little Bombardier Beetle 

 {Brachinus crepitans) is a familiar example. These Beetles are 

 very social, and it is said that at least a thousand have been 

 seen gathered under a single fiat stone near the river's brink. 

 On being disturbed they at once begin to eject the explosive 

 liquid, and a smart fusillade is kept up for some time. 



I remember that at one time schoolboys were in the habit of 

 amusing themselves during the winter evenings by scattering 

 coarse grains of gunpowder very thinly along the bars of the 

 fire, and then waiting for them to explode singly. The little 

 explosions of the Bombardier Beetles are exceedingly like those 

 of the grains of powder, and, like gunpowder used in war, are 



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