CELLAR BEETLES. 125 



our type is the CHURCHYARD BEETLE (Blaps mor- 

 tisaga\ which is represented below. All the species 

 belonging to this genus are to use a word which I 

 do not like to apply to insects ugly. They are dull, 

 dead-black in colour, are wonderfully sluggish, 

 crawling slowly as if afflicted with rheumatism, and 

 always frequenting damp, dark, and dismal places. 

 Being often found in the murkiest crannies of cellars, 

 they have gained the popular and appropriate title of 

 CELLAR BEETLES. 



The species represented in the illustration may 

 be recognised by the bold puncturing and contracted 

 base of the thorax, and the 

 lengthened projection at the apex 

 of the elytra. It is not so generally 

 plentiful as the second species, 

 Blaps mucronata, being seldom 

 found in the southern parts of 

 England. Still these species are 

 very similar in their habits. They 

 are possessed of a very nauseous 



, . r i 11- Blaps mortisaga. 



odour, suggestive of dwelling 

 among the graves. Yet, unpleasant as these Beetles 

 may be, we are informed that an Egyptian species, 

 Blaps sulcata, is employed as a remedy for ear-ache, 

 and a cure for the sting of the scorpion ; while the 

 women are in the habit of seeking and eating it, in 

 order to produce the fatness which is thought in the 

 East to be an essential point in female beauty. 



THE family of the Tenebrionidae only contains 

 one genus, and that genus but two British species. 



