THE CHURCHYARD BEETLE. 129 



almost covered with multitudes of the Blaps morti- 

 saga, specimens of which occasionally found their way 

 upstairs, and out at the street-door. Although its 

 legs are long and stout, the gait of this beetle is ex- 

 ceedingly sluggish, and this circumstance, coupled 

 with its dull black colour, and the abominable odour 

 which it emits when alarmed, renders it by no means 

 an agreeable object. To add to the unpleasant asso- 

 ciations which have already obtained an ominous 

 name for this insect, its larva, which, although larger, 

 resembles that of Tenebrio, is said on more than one 

 occasion to have been discharged from the human 

 intestines. In one case on record, a young woman, 

 aged twenty- eight, emitted no less than two thousand 

 of these larvae at various times, accompanied by one 

 pupa and one imago; and the cause to which this 

 extraordinary occurrence was attributed, was a most 

 disgusting and superstitious practice which she had 

 for some time followed, of drinking every day a certain 

 quantity of water mixed with clay taken from the 

 graves of two Catholic priests. 



In the next tribe to which we have to turn our 

 attention, we find another change in the structure of 

 the tarsi, which are all composed of four joints*. The 



* The group of Beetles in which this number prevails, which 

 includes the present and the two following tribes, has been called 

 Tetramera from this circumstance. Their tarsi are in reality 

 generally composed of five joints, but the fourth articulation is 

 excessively minute, and concealed within the extremity of that 

 which precedes it, for which reason Mr. Westwood has proposed 

 to denominate this group Pseudotetramera, or apparently four- 

 jointed Beetles. 



G5 



