304 



ILlS'l'OltY. 



to occur everywhere on the land-surface of the earth where life exists at all in the most desert places 

 of the tropics, in the Arctic regions, up to the line of perpetual snow on mountains, and in the 

 deepest recesses of limestone caverns (AnopJtthalini and others), where, for countless generations 

 deprived of the merest glimmer of daylight, a numerous tribe are found completely blind, and with 

 all traces of eyes obliterated. They are well represented on the remotest oceanic islands, generally 

 in species and genera curiously modified from all known forms of the nearest continents. Some 

 genera of very minute species (Scotodipnus and Anillus) have been discovered underneath huge 

 secular boulders, embedded many feet deep in the earth, and requiring crowbars and the strong 

 arms of labouring men to overturn in order that they may be reached. In temperate latitudes the 

 great majority of the species are ground-beetles, at most hiding themselves in moss or under stones ; 



CAltABUS AUKATVS. 



many genera, however (Scaritince), are diggers, being furnished with strong, palmated fore-shanks 

 (analogous to those of the Mole-cricket) to suit their fossorial habits, and thus being enabled to burrow 

 to considerable depths in the soil to get at their special prey, the small insects which infest the roots 

 of shrubs. But in tropical countries, more especially in the plains, where the functions of insect 

 scavengers, on and immediately under the soil, are almost monopolised by the ubiquitous ants, ground 

 Carabidse are much less numerous, at least, in individuals. In these climates the majority of the 

 native species of the family live on trees. These arboreal species are more varied in their forms, 

 offer more peculiarities of structure, and are usually more beautifully-coloured and marked than the 

 ground species ; they exhibit also interesting modifications of structure suitable to their habits, the 

 tarsi, or jointed feet, being often lobed, and their claws elegantly toothed, to enable them to cling to the 

 edges or surface of leaves. Those which live under the rotting bark of huge forest trees have, instead 

 of the adapted feet, flattened bodies, enabling them to penetrate narrow crevices, and the parts of the 

 mouth are in some cases also prolonged and flattened, the better to enable them to seize their prey in 

 such situations. 



Like most other families of Coleoptera, but perhaps in greater degree than any other, the Carabidse 



