ii8 COMMON BRITISH INSECTS. 



the first place, it bears a singularly close resemblance 

 to the perfect female insect ; and in the next, it is 

 furnished with a peculiar apparatus at the end of the 

 tail, which serves a double purpose, primarily of assist- 

 ing in locomotion, and secondarily acting as a brush, 

 by which the slime of the snail can be swept from its 

 body. In some works on entomology, this organ has 

 been erroneously drawn like a shaving-brush cut off 

 square at the end, whereas it consists of some seven 

 or eight projections from the end of the body, which 

 can be protruded or withdrawn at will. Almost as soon 

 as the snails begin to come out from the hiding-places 

 in which they have lain dormant through the winter, 

 the Glow-worm larva is ready to attack them, and 

 thus plays its part in reducing the number of snails 

 that would have been produced by those which it 

 kills, and so helps to preserve the balance of Nature. 

 The generic name of Lampyris is formed from 

 two Greek words signifying ' shining-tail.' 



THE family of the Telephoridae comes next in 

 order. These insects have long and very soft elytra, 

 which often do not cover the whole of the abdomen. 

 The head is not hidden under the thorax, and both 

 the antennae and the palpi are slender. The various 

 species are very plentiful, especially on the flowers of 

 umbelliferous plants, and are popularly known as 

 Soldiers and Sailors the red species being called by 

 the former name, and the blue species by the latter. 



One of these Beetles, called TelepJiorus fit sens, is 

 shown in the accompanying' woodcut. In this genus 

 the elytra reach to the end of the abdomen, and the 



