246 LARVA OF THE TIGER-BEETLE. 



of lying in wait for prey with head alone visible, is a stratagem 

 employed also by the grub of the tiger-beetle, which for beauty, 

 fierceness, and rapidity of motion stands at the head of our 

 native Coleoptera. The larva of this insect tiger, which is no 

 less voracious than the perfect beetle, is a soft, white, round- 

 bodied animal with six feet, two horn-like tubercles on the 

 back, a head shielded by a circular scaly plate, and armed 

 with, a pair of formidable jaws. 



The lair of this unsightly, devouring, and cunning monster, 

 when on the look-out for living booty, is a cylindrical hole of 

 its own excavation, wherein, supported perpendicularly by the 

 dorsal appendages above mentioned, it rests hidden all but the 

 mailed head, which nearly fills up the mouth of its hole, and 

 with its jaws expanded on the stretch for prey. If an unwary 

 insect happens to approach, forth darts the lurker, and sud- 

 denly seizing, retreats with its victim, which it drags down- 

 wards to devour. 



When arrived at maturity, the tiger-beetle exhibits a form 

 as singularly beautiful as in the stage of larva it was singularly 

 ugly, but no less strikingly adapted than the latter to the pre- 

 dacious activity, which, in contrast to the predacious strategy 

 of its early life, is henceforward to distinguish it. Long agile 

 limbs, projecting eyes, and toothed jaws, alike bespeak and fit 

 it for a creature of rapine, and for pursuit of prey in open 

 sandy places ; while resembling its mammalian prototype in 



* Khagio vermilio. 



