GROUND BEETLES. 35 



black insect, but a more careful examination shows 

 that the supposed black is in reality the deepest violet, 

 which on the margins of the elytra and thorax be- 

 comes of a rich burnished golden-violet, like as of 

 polished metal. The whole of the upper surface is 

 granulated, the elytra more deeply than the thorax, 

 along the centre of which there is a slightly elevated 

 line. Below, it is black, with a slight green or blue 

 reflection. 



These Beetles afford good practice in setting. 

 They are large enough to bear handling, and yet 

 small enough to require care. Their legs are long, 

 and look well when set out, and the parts of the 

 mouth are sufficiently large to show whether the 

 operator has been careful about his work. These 

 Beetles, by the way, are very tenacious of life, and, 

 though they can be at least rendered insensible and 

 harmless by the laurel-bottle, it will be as well to dip 

 them into boiling water before passing the pin through 

 them, so as to avoid the sight of an impaled Beetle 

 trying to release itself, or walking about the cabinet 

 drawer with a pin through its body. 



I have always had a great liking for these Beetles 

 from the time when I was accustomed to harness them 

 into fairy chariots, to that in which I first learned 

 from them the wonders of an insect's organisation 

 and traced in them the early rudiments of those 

 structures which find their fullest development in 

 man. 



NEXT on our list comes the genus Notiophilus, 

 Avhich, being translated, signifies wet-lover and is a 



D 2 



