33 



CHAPTER III. 

 GEODEPHAGA continued. 



WE now come to the important family of the Cara- 

 bidae, to which belong some of the largest and most 

 powerful of the Geodephaga. The Carabidae are in 

 many points exactly like the Cicindelidae, and if 

 isolated parts of the mouth were taken to an entomo- 

 logist, he would have some difficulty in knowing to 

 which family they belonged. But, whereas the 

 Cicindelidae have a notch on the inner side of the 

 front tibiae, these limbs are without the notch in the 

 Carabidae. 



The typical genus is well represented in this 

 country, and its members are familiar to us by the 

 title of Ground Beetles or Garden Beetles. They are 

 the largest of the family, some of them being an inch 

 in length, and strongly though elegantly shaped. 

 They are very active, as far as their legs go, but they 

 have no wings, these members being only found in a 

 rudimentary state under the hard and shining elytra,, 

 which in most of the species are soldered together 

 and cannot be opened. In one species, however, 

 Carabus grannlatus, the elytra are capable of motion, 

 and the wings are more developed than is generally 



D 



