OF HARTING. 329 



take the first rank among beetles, and as they are 

 among the most active and ferocious insects of prey, 

 they are very appropriately named Tiger Beetles. 

 They so readily take wing, and are so fleet footed, 

 that not only do their luckless victims find it almost 

 impossible to escape them, but they themselves are 

 not easily captured by the entomologist. The only 

 species we have met with here, chiefly on the highway 

 known as Tarbury Knap, and occasionally in the sandy 

 district, on bright sunny days in spring and summer, is 

 the Cicindela campestris, a beautiful rose-scented, silky 

 green beetle, with white spots on the wing-cases, and a 

 tinge of copper on other portions of the body. In its 

 larval state it is a horrid-looking grub, nearly all head 

 and jaws, inhabiting a deep vertical burrow which it 

 makes in the soil. It is provided with two hooks on 

 the back, by means of which, with the assistance of its 

 six legs, it can anchor itself just within the mouth of 

 its pit, which it then closes with its large flat head. 

 In this position it is capable of suddenly seizing any 

 unwary insect that may be passing within reach, and 

 dragging it down to the bottom of its charnel house, 

 where it quickly devours it. 



The next group of predacious Land Beetles 

 (Carabidcs) is a very large one, no less than four 

 hundred and fifty species having been described as 

 British. The members of this division may frequently 

 be seen running about highways and pathways, or 

 found concealed under wood, bark and stones, in 

 hedgerows and other places, and their office is to 

 assist in keeping within numerical bounds the hosts 

 of other insects which, in their most voracious stage, 

 commit such havock on the roots of our herbage and 

 the green leaves of our trees and plants. The Cychrus 

 rostratus, Carabus violacens, Carabus catennlatus, 

 Carabtis nemoralis and Carabus monilis are among 

 the larger species engaged in this work, and are 

 generally distributed hereabouts. The smaller Nothio- 



