40 INSECTS ABROAD. 



through the elytra, and the general shape of the smaller letters 

 be made visible. 



The colour of these elytra is dark red-brown. Their surface 

 is highly polished, like shining horn, and is covered with 

 rounded wavings like the marks Left by the sea-ripple on the 

 sand. The general appearance and colour of these strange 

 elytra have been happily compared to the thin, flat, shining 

 gingerbread called "jumble The edges of the thorax are also 

 flattened, jusi as if they had been made of some soft substance 

 and then pinched, and they arc furnished with rather formidable- 

 looking teeth at the side-. 



The legs and body arc much blacker than the elytra, but the 

 blackness is evidently owing to the greater thickness, inasmuch 

 as the thorax, which is red-brown at the sides, where it is thin, 

 is red-black in the middle, where it is thick. If the elytra be 

 separated, the wings can be seen snugly packed away between 

 thriii and the body, so that we may consider it to be among the 

 flying i 



In eonsetjuence of its strange and almost eccentric shape, 



itematic entomologists were for a time rather puzzled as to the 

 place which it ought to hold. Some wished to place it with 

 the genus Sphodrus, on account of the structure of the mouth 

 and the deep notch near the tip of the front tibiae. Some ranked 

 it with the Brachinidse, or Bombardier Beetles, because it cer- 

 tainly has, with the exception of the flattened elytra, a derided 



emblance to some of the genera of that family. Moreover, it 

 has similar habits to the Brachinidse, being always found hiding 

 under some substance that will exclude the light, just as our com- 

 mon British Bombardier Beetles arc always found hiding under 

 stones. Some thought that it ought to come at the very head 

 (if the Beetle tribes, even taking precedence of the Tiger Beel 

 However, the multitude of counsellors has found wisdom, and 

 by degrees theMormolyce lias settled down into the place which 

 it now or, npies; namely, the family of the Perioalides. 



Although a large Beetle, it does not seem to be a strong one, 

 and, in spite of the saw-like edges of the thorax, its general 

 aspeel conveys an impression of feebleness. The head, for 

 i ample, is small in proportion to the resl of the body, and is 

 very much elongated and slightly flattened; the jaws are in- 

 significant, and the legs give no indications of power. Indeed, 



