AN OLD NATUEALIST. 03 



more breaking forth from the midst of the forehead straight and 

 plain, ending as it were in a little smooth knot : it goes upon 

 six feet ; the fore feet are longer and greater than the rest. 



" Lonicerus makes this to be the male ; but I (if there be any 

 distinction between the male and the female) shall not doubt to 

 call it the female ; both because the other kindes of Beetles are 

 less (for, as Aristotle observes, the males in insects are far less 

 than the females). The male is altogether like it, but 'tis less 

 both for body and homes, which, though they be not branched 

 on both sides, yet, pressed together, they do more sharply prick 

 one's finger than the female doth." 



The reader wull doubtlessly have noticed the curious mixture 

 of correct description and wrong theory in this passage. In the 

 first place, Dr. Mouffet evidently thinks that the small undeve- 

 loped males are only young Beetles which will in time grow to 

 a larger size ; and in the next place he mistakes the male for the 

 female — stating, however, with perfect accuracy, that the bite of 

 the latter is sharper than that of her larger jawed mate. 



We will now pass to an example of these Beetles, the first of 

 which is the Chiasognatlms Grantii of Chili. 



I really hardly know where to begin in treating of this mag- 

 nificent insect, which is equally surprising from its strange shape, 

 its great size, and its marvellous colouring. We have nothing- 

 like it in England, and it is so peculiar in its form that, together 

 with a few other Beetles, it forms the family of Chiasognathidee. 



This is a rather long word, but it is easily explained. The 

 first portion of it signifies anything that is marked with a cross, 

 like the Greek character % or chi, or anything that crosses 

 another in like form. The latter half of the word signifies " a 

 jaw," and we shall frequently find it as forming portions of 

 certain insects' names. This name is given to the insect on 

 account of the extraordinarily shaped jaws of the fully developed 

 male, which, when closed, really do bear some resemblance to 

 the x- The word, by the way, is not quite correctly spelled, the 

 proper rendering being Chiastognathus. 



The form of the extraordinary jaws is shown in the illus- 

 tration, but it is impossible by the plain black and white of 

 printer's ink to give any idea of their colour, which is shining 

 dark bronze green, over which plays a crimson radiance according 



