46 INSECTS AT HOME. 



shoulder, and striated ; some small punctures being scantily 

 visible on the strioe. The colour of the insect is black. 



In this Beetle we see one of the fiercest and most voracious 

 of the whole insect race. It lives on the sea-shore, generally 

 hiding itself beneath decaying sea-weed or stones, and making 

 burrows under such points of vantage. From this burrow it 

 issues in search of prey, and successfully pursues all kinds of 

 insects, its own kind included. So voracious is it, and so many 

 insects does it kill, that if it reside for a dav or two in one 

 burrow, it can be detected by the rejected elytra, limbs, and 

 other parts of insects which it has caught and eaten. It is the 

 only British example of its genus. 



The large genus Amara now comes before us, and out of the 

 twenty-four species which are included in it I have selected 

 Amara obsoleta as our example. This insect is drawn on 

 Woodcut IV. Fig. 3. All the insects belonging to this genus are 

 small, and most of them are brightly coloured. They all take 

 rank as Sun Beetles or Sun Shiners ; and, fortunately for them, 

 there is a wide-spread superstition that it is unlucky to kill a 

 Sun Beetle, and that its death will cause terrible storms. 



The members of this genus are rather wide in proportion to 

 their length, and have the thorax wide behind, as wide, in fact, 

 as the elytra. They have large wings, which they can use with 

 great effect; and the males have three dilated joints on the 

 front tarsi. These Beetles are very plentiful, and may be seen 

 either ilying through the air on their ample wings, running 

 about in the full blaze of the sunshine, or temporarily hiding 

 under sticks and stones. 



Although it is no very difficult matter to know an Amara 

 when it is seen, I must warn the reader that to distinguish the 

 different species is a task which requires the minutest attention 

 to the smallest details, and had better be deferred until the eye 

 has been trained to seize at once on those small but important 

 characteristics, which at once strike the eye of a practised 

 entomologist, and invariably elude the scrutiny of a novice. 

 The eye can only see that which it has the power of seeing ; and 

 it is worthy of remark that twenty or thirty young observers 

 will miss exactly the most important detail in an insect structure 

 until it is pointed out by an experienced entomologist, when 



