TIGER BEETLES. 89 



3. The Tetramerans, * in which the tarsi of all the legs have 

 four articulations. 



4. The Trimerans, t in which all the tarsi have only three 

 ioints. 



SECTION OF PEXTAMEKAXS. 



The first division of Coleoptera, having five joints in all their 

 tarsi, are the most active and highly gifted of the race, and may 

 be considered as the lions and tigers of the insect world : they 

 constitute the family of Carnivora, 1 and are distinguished by 

 having two palpi on each maxilla. 



These beetles in their perfect state pursue and devour other in- 

 sects; their larvae also have similar habits. Among them we find 



The Tiger Beetles (Cicindda}\. which are excellent representatives of 

 the quadruped whose name they bear ; conspicuously the most rapacious and 

 bloodthirsty of the race ; equally remarkable for the beauty of their colours, 

 their extreme activity, and savage propensities. They run with considerable 

 swiftness, and take wing the moment they are approached ; but they alight 

 again at a short distance. They are commonly met with in the heat of sum- 

 mer upon heaths and in other dry, sunny situations. Their larva.' excavate 

 cylindrical burrows in the ground', which are, many of 

 them, upwards of a foot in depth: in the construction 

 of these dens they exhibit extraordinary ingenuity 

 loosening the earth by means of their powerful jaws, 

 and carrying it to the surface upon their broad heads. 

 They have hooks upon their backs, which assist them 

 in climbing to the top of their excavation, much in the FIG. 7 8. 



same way as a chimney-sweep climbs a chimney. Their LARVA OF TIGEK BEETLE. 

 hole being completed, they station themselves just 



within its entrance, where they lie in wait for any poor passing insect traveller, 

 which is instantly seized and dragged to the bottom of the cave, there to bo 

 devoured. 



The Ground Beetles (Carabus}\\ are scarcely less active than the fore- 

 going, or less carnivorous in their habits : many of them are constantly em- 

 ployed in prowling about upon the surface of the ground in search of insect 

 prey, lurking in the day-time under stones and other similar places of con- 

 cealment, and carrying on an unrelenting warfare against innumerable noxious 

 insects, the destructiveness of which they materially assist in diminishing. 

 Among these marauding beetles, the most remarkable are 



The Bombardiers (Brachintis\ as they are not inappositely named, several 

 species being provided with a means of defence unparalleled among the lower animals. 

 Of all the inventions which mankind seems fairly entitled to claim as being exclusively 

 of human contrivance, perhaps that of guns and gunpowder might be deemed the most 

 original; yet even in this, strange to say, he has been forestalled. The little bombardier 

 beetles possessed an artillery of their own long before the fields of Crecy first trembled at 



* rerpa?, tetras, four ; /j-epos. meros, a joint. f rpetj, treis, three; /ifyos, meros, a joint. 



+ Caro, carnis, flesh ; voro, I eat. Cicindela, a shining insect. 



|| Ka.pa.fios, carabos, a beetle. 



