120 NATURAL HISTORY OF 



the elytra. The species are confined to certain dis- 

 tricts of Asia, and the African continent. Even 

 the southern shores of Europe, of which the vege- 

 table and animal productions become strongly assi- 

 milated to those of Africa, have not hitherto afford- 

 ed any examples. They delight in an arid and 

 sandy soil, in which they form shallow excavations, 

 and lie in wait for their prey. In manners, and 

 even in the figure of their bodies, they bear a greater 

 resemblance to the beetle named Broscus cephalotes, 

 found abundantly on the sandy shores of the sea in 

 many places both in England and Scotland, than 

 to any other British insect. They partake of the 

 form which prevails among beetles accustomed to 

 burrow in the soil, and which is best exemplified in 

 the Scarites and Clivinae, or mole-beetles, as they 

 are sometimes called, which live chiefly beneath the 

 ground. The head is very thick and strong, fitted 

 to make its way through a resisting medium, and 

 the thorax is attached to the abdomen by a narrow 

 neck-like portion, which admits of the anterior part 

 of the body being easily turned in a lateral direc- 

 tion, and therefore answers the same purposes as 

 the flexibility of the vertebral column in moles and 

 other burrowing quadrupeds. The hinder part of 

 the body is considerably wider than the anterior, a 

 circumstance never observed in burrowing beetles 

 properly so called, as it would materially impede the 

 insect's progress through its cylindrical excavations. 

 The species figured is 



