Sept. 4, 1885.] 



♦ KNOWLEDGE ♦ 



The lower -vre descend in the scale of human intelli- 

 t^ence the nearer do we approach the highest types of 

 animal mind, and accordingly we find that the faculty of 

 imitation is largely developed among the more intelligent 

 animals, and is at its highest in monkeys. In the human 

 infant it begins very early. Prcyer says that the first 

 imitative movement begins as early as the fifteenth week, 

 when the child copies the action of protruding the lips if 

 it is performed before it. Towards the end of the first year 

 imitative movements become more numerous and more 

 quickly learnt. At twelve months Preyer saw his own 

 child repeating in its dreams imitative movements which 

 had strongly impressed it when awake ; for example, 

 blowing with the mouth. Later still, complicated imita- 

 tive movements are repeated for amusement, as seems to 

 be the case with monkeys. " With growing intelligence 

 (as Romanes says) this faculty subsequently declines, and 

 in after life may be said to stand in an inverse relation to 

 originality or the higher powers of the mind. Therefore 

 among idiots below a certain grade (though, of course, 

 not too low), it is usually very strong, and retains its 

 supremacy through life, while even among idiots of a 

 higher kind, or the 'feeble-minded,'* a tendency to 

 undue imitation is a very constant peculiarity. The 

 same thing is conspicuously observable in the case of 

 many savages, so that in view of all these facts we must 

 conclude that the faculty of imitation is one very 

 characteristic of a certain area of mental evolution." f 



OUR HOUSEHOLD INSECTS. 



By E. a. Butleb. 



COLEOPTEEA (continued). 



WE have only one other group from which to select 

 examples of British household Coleoptera. These 

 are the most highly developed of all, the Geodephaga 

 (or predaconii - ji i;iil liLttles, as the name signifies), 

 which in c!;.. ■ v placed at the head of the 



whole ordrr. i ,. nf this important group are 



found in crlln-, .,i 1 .Iri; nuthouses. They closely re- 

 semble one another in shape, but, nevertheless, may 

 easily be distinguished both by sizr and cnhnir. The 

 larger, Splwdrus leucophthaluuis (Fig. 1), which is also a 

 l)akehou.se insect, is black, and tin 



ni|ih 



nf II steel blue 

 s well befits 



shape that a figui'e of one will be quite sufiicient to 

 enable both to be recognised. The most elegant 

 part about them is the thorax, which is of the form 

 called by entomologists " heart-shaped " — that is, the 

 outline of the margins consists of a double curve on 

 each side, the front half being convex and the hinder 

 concave. This has the effect of forming something like 

 a waist, and of imparting an air of neatness and refine- 

 ment, so to speak ; and, therefore, eyen SjiJiodrus, though 

 so large, can certainly not be considered either coarse or 

 clumsy. 



A formi.labl.' pair of jaws, with which the insects can 

 give an un|il.':isaiit nip, if inraiil ii nisi V s.iz-.l, project in 

 front nf tin. lira.l likr a pair of >l.i'ars. The pair of 

 small joiiiicd appcuda<,0's, Hki^ i ., . . n, Inut ,• a„f.nn:c, by 

 the side of these, are the m; ' f ' rs 



attached to the maxillw, .-i li 



underlie the mandibles or tru. i 's 



lurk under stones and in darl: • ly 



disturbed in their hiding-places, make the nust fr.mtic 

 efforts to recover their shelter. They can always find 

 plenty of food, in the shape of the other cellar Celeoptcra, 

 to which we have already referred, and many other kinds 

 of insects that frequent such situations. 



Besides the more legitimate coleopterous inhabitants 

 of our houses, which we have described in the preceding 

 articles, there are, of course, plenty of stray visitors that 

 may at any time turn up. On a fine summer day, 

 windows into which the sun is shining brightly often 

 have a considerable insect population, amongst which 

 many beetles may be found, especially such as ladybirds 

 and tiny rove-beetles. Sometimes great rarities may be 

 met with in this way. Thus the Eev. W. W. Fowler 

 records having taken, off a lodging-house window at 

 Hunstanton, two minute beetles which had scarcely ever 

 been met with in Britain before, beetles which were not 

 household .species at all, but simply casual visitors which 

 had flown in ami l".ai u'; 1 '.■ t.) find their way out again. 

 The corridor.-, .": ' C ' I'alace, similarly, often yield 



hosts of tiny i i 'iire is one species that is 



Our food, too, somotinics ii,!i' ':, - ' ' 'ts 



than \vc c;'.re for. House-flii ~. i'. 



or fossilised in bread, r.nd ca-. : , i' 



cabba-sc will, of course, at om:,^ • , a 1, 



indeed, considering the inquisitive uiilure oi sonic if our 

 household pests, it is a marvel that we do not get more 

 of them served up to table than we do. Foreign beetles 

 soiiiot inns occur in brown sugar, easily hidden amongst 

 tho orvsials as loiiy; as the su-'ar is ill the solid form, but 

 1. roll-ill into uiuK'siralili' | roiii iiu aire when it has been 

 ,lj-,„.l\,il in ,111- .■olVo.^; ill.' only specimen my cabinet 

 l„.:i>i-, ,r a, 1.1 :ii, (..' > that is now reckoned as 

 IliM-li. ill. i; i . I- i., finally imported, was thus 



il.l,. i , a! . f ,. , ! And it is not merely s-mall 



i:,.iiili,,i ::| 1 . , r 111 liii- >Miy. I once met with a fine 

 - 1 ill '\iiii rici.u wccvif in a goosebeny tart; it 

 . ii.( >pccies, of a purplish-brown colour, with 

 , 1, ; , \ 11,. u isli-whitc cii-cular spots, and was about 



l,-,if- . I; !, . ■. It wr.S in excellent i-mnlitioii. :.nd not 



in til 1 ' . ;' rce damaged by tl 'ad 



und. 1 : . i ! . t,. be set up as r. 1 . 1''' 



cabin. a >p. . o - 1 have known, f. . . i-i 



which the >la ,. ' 1 •• ■ '• 



appar cnt ly ! I . - 



then 



Beetles, to.., mav k. :"■ ■' ' ■ •■■ ■•^' ' '"- 



the walls of our Inmses. I once met «ith t«.. sj eruuens, 

 the only ones I possess, of a rare beetle, one, in fact, 



