ROVE BEETLES. 61 



Ing the wings under the elytra, the -Beetle is obliged 

 to act in a very curious manner, bending the tail over 

 the back, and with the extremity of the body arrang- 

 ing the wings under their sheaths. The earwig uses 

 its forceps for a similar purpose, as we shall see when 

 we come to that insect. The 

 accompanying woodcut shows 

 one of the large Brachelytra in 

 the act of packing up its wings. 

 In consequence of their activity 

 both on the wing and on foot, 

 these insects have gained the 

 popular name of ROVE BEETLES. 



All these Beetles have the habit of bending their 

 bodies upwards when alarmed, for which reason they 

 have received the popular name of Cocktail Beetles. 

 This act has, in the larger species, so menacing an 

 aspect that many persons are afraid to touch so for- 

 midable an insect. In reality, the smaller species are 

 more to be dreaded than the larger. I have already 

 mentioned that the Brachelytra take easily to wing, 

 when they may be mistaken for flies, so ample are 

 their wings and so quick their movements. Many of 

 them are very small not thicker than an ordinary 

 horsehair and these are almost invariably the little 

 black * flies ' that are in the habit of getting into the 

 eye on fine summer evenings, and causing an amount 

 of pain which seems quite disproportionate to the size 

 of the insect. Of course even a small fly would cause 

 pain if it got into the eye ; but when one of these 

 Beetles finds itself imprisoned, it instinctively turns up 

 its pointed tail, and thus causes a double amount of 



