USE OF THE JAWS. 95 



The elytra are also green, but have a silky sort of a look. 

 The carmine gloss also belongs to them, and is most apparent 

 along the edges and in the suture. The under surface is also 

 green, but is covered with a quantity of golden yellow down. 



The female is shaped much like the male, except in the jaws, 

 which are very short, stout, and rounded. Still, though they do 

 not look so formidable as the enormous jaws of her mate, I think 

 that if I had to be bitten by either insect, I would prefer the 

 bite of the male to that of the female. She is green in colour, 

 but the surface is not polished as in the male, and the green is 

 altogether of a duller quality. 



This splendid insect is tolerably common in forests, where it 

 is found upon the trunks of trees, climbing them actively, and 

 even gracefully. The great development of jaw in the males 

 appears to be for the purpose of affording weapons whereby 

 they may fight for their mates. During their combat they raise 

 themselves upon their hind legs and bite fiercely, the stronger of 

 them breaking the jaw of his weaker opponent. Nine speci- 

 mens of this splendid genus are known to entomologists, but 

 none of them are nearly so large and so plentiful as the present 

 insect. 



The Beetle which forms our second example of this singular 

 group is not so striking in point of form, but is much more 



Fig. 43. — Lampriitia aurata. 

 (Gold-green, glossed with copper.) 



splendid in point of colour than the preceding insect. It is 

 called Lamprima aurata, and is a native of Southern Australia, 



