SUNSHINERS. 



THE large genus Amara now comes before us, 

 and out of the twenty-four species which are included 

 in it I have selected Amara obsoleta as our example. 

 This insect is depicted in the accompanying woodcut. 

 All the insects belonging to this 

 genus are small, and most of 

 them are brightly coloured. They 

 all take rank as Sun Beetles 

 or Sun Shiners ; and, fortunately 

 for them, there is a wide-spread 

 superstition that it is unlucky 

 to kill a Sun Beetle, and that its 

 death will cause terrible storms. 



The members of this genus 

 are rather wide in proportion 

 to their length, and have the 

 thorax wide behind, as wide, in 

 They have large wings, which they can use with great 

 effect ; and the males have three dilated joints on the 

 front tarsi. These Beetles are very plentiful, and may 

 be seen either flying through the air on their ample 

 wings, running about in full blaze of the sunshine, or 

 temporarily hiding under sticks and stones. 



Although it is no very difficult matter to know an 

 Amara when it is seen, I must warn the reader that 

 to distinguish the different species is a task which 

 requires the minutest attention to the smallest details, 

 and had better be deferred until the eye has been trained 

 to seize at once on those small but important charac- 

 teristics, which at once strike the eye of a practised 

 entomologist, and invariably elude the scrutiny of a 

 novice. The eye can only see that which it has the 



Amara obsoleta. 



fact, as the elytra. 



