COLEOPTERA. 363 



bial palpi are distinctly composed of four joints, and generally pilose, as 

 well as those of the maxillae. 



This great Linnaean genus now forms various subgenera, such as Mantico- 

 ra, Megacephala, &c. The true Cicindela or 



CICINDELA, Lat. 



Are usually of a darker or lighter green, mixed with various brilliant 

 metallic tints; the elytra are marked with white spots* They prefer dry, 

 warm situations, run with considerable swiftness, take wing the moment 

 they are approached, but alight at a short distance. If pursued they have 

 recourse to the same means of escape. 



The larvae of two species indigenous to France, the only ones that have 

 been observed, excavate in the earth a deep cylindrical hole, an operation 

 which they effect with their mandibles and feet. To empty it, they place 

 the detached particles on their head, turn about, climb up the ascent little 

 by little, resting at intervals and clinging to the walls of their domicil by 

 means of their two dorsal mammillae; when they arrive at the mouth of the 

 aperture they throw down their burden. While in ambuscade, the plate 

 of their head exactly closes the entrance of their cell, and is on a level with 

 the ground. They seize their prey with their mandibles, and even dart 

 upon it, and by a see-saw motion of their head precipitate it to the bottom 

 of the hole. Thither also they quickly retreat on the least intimation of 

 danger. If they are too confined, or the soil is not of a proper nature, they 

 construct a new habitation elsewhere. Such is their voracity that they 

 devour other larvae of the same species, which have taken up their abode 

 in their vicinity. When about to change their tegument or to become pupae, 

 they close the opening of their cell. 



The American species of Cicindela are numerous and beautiful. 



The second tribe, or the CARABICI, Lat., comprehends the genus 



CARABUS, Lin. 



Where the maxillae simply terminate in a point or hook, without an articu- 

 lated extremity. 



Their head is usually narrower than the thorax, or, at most, of the 

 same width; their mandibles, those of a few excepted, have no dentations 

 or but very few; the ligula usually projects, and the labial palpi exhibit but 

 three free joints. Many of them are destitute of wings, only having elytra. 

 They frequently diffuse a fetid odour, and eject an acrid and caustic liquid. 

 Geoffrey believed that the ancients designated Carabici under the name of 

 Buprestes t Insects which they considered as highly poisonous, particularly 

 to Oxen. 



The Carabici conceal themselves in the ground, under stones, chips, 

 bark of old trees, &c., and are mostly very active. Their larvae have the 



