OAK FREQUENTERS. 115 



in lieu of rolling a leaf, makes itself a curious boat-shaped 

 cocoon. 



A variety of Beetles, besides the cruel " Inquisitor," may 

 be seen on the trunk, dislodged from under the bark, or 

 found near the root of the oak. Conspicuous amongst these, 

 the scarlet, black-legged " Cardinal," though more partial to 

 the flowery May, is often found parading up the trunk, or 

 taking a circuit around this, his paternal tree under the 

 bark of which he first saw darkness, and passed, monk-like, 

 the period of his grub estate. 



The Carabus aterrimus a common dark destroyer of other 

 insects, and even of its own species the 0. nitens, and a 

 Dermestes, whose favourite food consists of the wood-lice 

 which assemble behind the bark, are also amongst the prey- 

 ing beetles which frequent the oak. 



The Golden-green Cicada* is another insect often found 

 upon the oak, from June to September. This is a curious, 

 shovel-headed, leaping little animal, allied to the Cicada of 

 singing celebrity, and, less remotely, to that which, while in 

 its green state of infancy, produces and inhabits the frothy 

 secretion so common on various leaves, and known usually as 

 " cuckoo spit." 



We have spoken already of several tribes of ants which 

 reside within the demesne of the regal oak, from whom these 

 insect republicans may be said to levy contributions, not only 



* Cicada aurita. 



