INSECTS AND SPIDERS 



525 



One may meet with the plump, yellowish-white larvae 

 in rotten oak and apple stumps, and in some others. Dr. 

 Lutz says this beetle is very abundant near New York. 



A related form of the Stag beetle is the Horned Pas- 

 salus (No. 6), a very abundant species in the District of 

 Columbia. The writer has generally found them under 

 the bark of fallen and decaying pine and oak trees. 

 Sometimes as many as twenty or thirty beetles occur 

 under a piece of bark not over a foot and a half square. 

 They have sharp little median horns projecting forwards 

 on their heads ; are almost black, and very glossy indeed, 

 one may say they arc quite handsome creatures. When 

 disturbed they rub their hard, outer wings together, and 

 thus give forth a peculiar, hissing sound; so should one 

 have a dozen or more of them in a dry box, their concert 

 may be heard across an average-sized room. Some coun- 

 try people call this beetle the Horn bug. 



The Searcher (No. 7) is one of the most beautiful of 

 all United States beetles, its hard and somewhat rough 

 elytra shows a great play of color when held in different 



lights. At one angle it appears to be of a rich azure, 

 and. turning it various ways, this passes to gold, or red, 

 and then to brilliant green and violet. It is a most 

 beneficial insect in our forests, as it hunts and devours 

 no end of caterpillar pests ; indeed, the country folk call 

 it the Caterpillar Hunter, and are more or less familiar 

 with its habits. In nature we find them under stones 

 and sometimes old logs. Occasionally they fly about the 

 city street-lights. So industrious are they in their hunts 

 for canker-worms and caterpillars that they will climb 

 up trees for them, and devour them as they are in the 

 act of destroying the leaves or fruit. One kind of cater- 

 pillar preys on the leaves of the oak trees in the West, 

 and this pest is destroyed by the hundreds by this hand- 

 some beetle. Miss Emma A. Smith gives a fine account 

 of this in the January 9 issue of the Prairie Farmer 

 (1878). 



Another very handsome insect is the Goldsmith Beetle 

 (No. 8), a superb and not abundant species that looks 

 as though it were made of solid gold, it having a coppery- 



A VARIETY OF BEETLES 



Fig. 5. The species of beetles here figured, natural size, are described in the article; so, for the reader's convenience, it 



will only be necessary to give a list of them here: 



1. Cloaked Knotty Horn (Desmocereus pallictus). 



2. Virginia Buprestid (Chalcophoca virginica). 



3. Straight-bodied Prionus (Othosoma brunneum). 



4. Common Stag Beetle (Lucanus dama). 



5. Spotted Horn Beetle (Dynastes tityrus). 



6. Horned Passalus (Passalus cornutus). 



7- The Searcher (Calosoma scrutator). 



8. Goldsmith Beetle (Cotalpa lanigera). 



9. Broad-necked Prionus (Prionus laticollis). 



10. Tumble-bug (Copris Carolina). 



11. Eyed Elator (Alaus oculatus). 



12. Spotted Pelidnota (Pelidnota punctata). 



