68 COMMON BRITISH INSECTS. 



Beetle, which, in spite of its ugliness, is really a very 

 interesting one. 



The eggs of all the Staphylinidae are large in pro- 

 portion to the creature which produces them, but 

 those of the Devil's Coach-horse are larger than those 

 of the largest British insect, being one-tenth of an 

 inch in length and one-twelfth broad. 



When these are hatched, little larvae issue from 

 them, somewhat similar in form to the parent insect, 

 though, of course, without any vestige of wings. 

 These larvae are quite as fierce as the perfect insects, 

 and much more voracious, eating being indeed, as 

 with all larvae, the chief business of their lives. They 

 are predacious, and, though they will devour carrion 

 when they can procure it, will attack and kill any 

 insect which comes near them, not even sparing their 

 own kind. They have an ingenious mode of seizing 

 their prey in the soft interval between the head and 

 neck, and then, plunging their sharp and curved jaws 

 deeply into its body, they suck out its juices. 



They can be found throughout the spring, and 

 may often be captured by digging shallow holes in 

 the ground in some sheltered spot, placing a piece 

 of meat, a dead bird or a frog, in the hole, and 

 covering it with a stone so as to protect it from the 

 elements, but leaving space for the ingress and 

 egress of the Beetles. Towards the end of spring 

 or the beginning of summer, the larva is full fed, and 

 burrows a hole in the earth, in which it undergoes 

 the change to the perfect form. 



There is a strange peculiarity about the pupae of 

 these Beetles. With nearly all wing-bearing Cole- 



