BEETLES 67 



dor," 1 which may often be seen in strong but blunder- 

 ing flight, especially towards evening, during the late 

 summer and autumn. In the allied Typh&us vulgaris 

 the male has a very striking appearance, its thorax 

 being armed with three stout, forward-directed horns. 

 Both these species, and their allies, make burrows in 

 the ground, and stock them with stercoraceous matter. 

 In this way provision is made for the needs of the 

 larvae, an egg being laid by the female in each 

 burrow. This group of insects comprises upwards of 

 fifty species, most of them much smaller than the two 

 that have been named. It constitutes no insignificant 

 part of Nature's machinery for securing a rapid 

 distribution of nitrogenous matter in the soil. 



Members of the series Heteromera are distinguished 

 from all other beetles by the fact that the tarsi of the 

 front and middle pairs of legs are five-jointed, while 

 those of the hind pair are four-jointed. One of the 

 largest British species is the dull black Blaps mucronata, 

 often called the " cellar " or " churchyard " beetle. 

 Its hind-wings are rudimentary, and the elytra are 

 united along their middle edges, thus serving not as 

 " wing-covers," but as a kind of shield above the 

 abdomen. The larva, which feeds on waste matter 

 of various kinds, is not unlike a large meal-worm in 

 appearance being, in fact, nearly related. The meal- 

 worm itself is too well known to need introduction ; 

 but many people express surprise when told that this 

 pest is the youthful form of a beetle. Besides 

 damaging meal and flour, this larva is one of several 

 kinds which infest biscuits, rendering them " weevily. 

 There are really two kinds of meal-worm beetles. 

 One, called Tencbrio molitor, is probably indigenous; 

 1 Geotrupes steroorarius. 



