6 



CHAPTEK IV 



GROUND BEETLES, OR CARJBID.E (continued) 



The tribe of the Aiithiades comprehends some of the giants of 

 the great family of the Carabidoe — insects which are not only- 

 large and powerful, but armed with jaws of enormous propor- 

 tionate size. These jaws are, as is often the case with insects, 

 fully developed in the male sex alone, the females having them 

 comparatively small. From this fact we may infer that the 

 great size, cruelly hooked shape, and sharp points of these jaws, 

 show that, in the male at all events, they are not required so 

 much for the purpose of obtaining food as of fighting. 



One of these Beetles, Anthia scx-guttata, is shown on Plate T. 

 Fig. 5. The colour of the insect is black, and the spots are 

 either white or cream-coloured. Both in the colour of the spots, 

 in its general size, and in the development of its jaws, it is quite 

 as variable as our own Stag Beetle, and it is impossible to see a 

 series of these Anthias without being struck by the curious 

 resemblance in these points between two perfectly dissimilar 

 insects. The peculiar projections of the thorax are covered with 

 pale down, sometimes nearly yellow and sometimes white. 



As to the habits of these insects, they can be inferred from a 

 letter written by INT. Westermann, of Copenhagen, to Mr. West- 

 wood. The former gentleman had found in Bengal a curious 

 larva, about three inches and a half in length, and, not knowing 

 what it might be, sent it to M. Latreille, the celebrated naturalist. 

 Mr. "Westwood afterwards wrote to the discoverer of the larva, 

 and received a letter, of which the following lines are an 

 extract : — 



"Being on a visit in Burdwan, in Bengal, one night returning 

 home, I observed, by the light of a lantern, the larva crawling in 

 the road. I immediately took it to be the larva of some large 



