Jri-Y 1, 1897.] 



KNOWLEDGE. 



155 



the flies bred from 

 appearance (Fig. 5) 



these larvcB began to make their 

 These are about one-thirty-second 

 of an inch long, and of most exquisite beauty. 



The only means for getting rid of this scourge of " galls '' 



Fig. 7. — Devil's Coach-Horse Beetle. 



is by united action in the United Kingdom, but -John Bull, 

 as represented by the farmer, has his Uttle peculiarities, 

 and believes that digging up a currant tree and throwing 

 it on a heap is quite suflicient to kill the mite. " Why, it 

 has nothing to feed on, " said one of the cheerful farmers. 

 " Ah I but each mite has legs and the power to use them," 

 I replied: "and they very soon transport themselves to 

 new and distant climes.'' The one and only plan for their 

 extermination is to carefully pick each "gall" from each 

 bush (don't drop one), and then burn them. 



How many a gar- 

 dener has turned 

 away in fright at the 

 sight of the devil's 

 coach -horse beetle 

 {I >rypus olens), (Fig. 

 G). In October this 

 devil's coach - horse 

 is very plentiful in 

 our gardens. It is 

 the largest of this 

 peculiar shape, being 

 over an inch long. 

 When no one appears 

 to be looking at it, it 

 puts on rather a gro- 

 velling appearance, 

 creeping into very 

 narrow cracks and 

 preferring damp 

 stones ; but directly 

 it sees anyone — and 

 it is generally the 

 head is raised, and 

 one jerk suffices for 



Fig. 8.- 



-Mouth Organs of Devil's Coaeh- 

 Horse Beetle. 



most observant — with a jerk its 



with another its tail. Sometimes 



head and tail, but at others it is too much for its equi 



librium, and the decidedly conceited and over-confident 



creature upsets with its own uppishness. I have had hard 



work to persuade my friends and acquaintances that this 



beetle is a true friend of every gardener. I have watched 

 it at its beneficial work at all hours of the day and night, 

 and never once have I caught it doing the slightest harm. 

 A favourite resort of these creatures is the railway em- 

 bankment gardens at Upper HoUoway Station. Many 



Fig. 9. — Earwig. Wings closed. 



times have I watched the devil's coach-horse foraging 

 among and under the cabbage leaves for green caterpUlars, 

 and so fond are they of this morsel that they will expose 

 themselves to great risks in obtaining it. One morning I 

 noticed one at the edge of the brickwork examining a 

 cabbage leaf on the under side of which was a large cater- 

 pillar, which the devil's coach-horse seized with a jerk of 

 its own head and tail iFig. 6), and this, in conjunction with 

 the jerk which the caterpillar gave on being seized, upset 



Fig. 10. — Earwig. Wings expanded. 



the pair and they fell a distance of nearly three feet on to 

 the asphalte below — but the beetle kept hold. I picked 

 them both up and put them into a piU-box. On reaching 

 home half an hour after I opened the box, and the devil's 

 coach-horse was there, but the caterpiUar was not ; it had 

 been eaten like many another of its kind. At night these 



