0,66 SUPPLEMENT ON THE CARNIVOROUS FAMILY 



jaws is not articulated with them. They emit, as we have 

 already seen, a foetid and caustic liquid from the anus, which 

 is often volatile, as in brachinus. According to Baron Cu- 

 vier their intestine is terminated by a widened cloaca, pro- 

 vided with two small sacs, from which this humour is secreted. 

 They are for the most part very agile. Many have no wings 

 under their elytra, and those Avhich do possess them make 

 much less use of them than the cicindeletae. They remain, 

 in general, under stones, or in the earth ; some conceal them- 

 selves under the barks of trees. The habits of the larvae are 

 exactly the same. 



It is necessary to apprize our readers that the sub-genera 

 of this tribe of carabici supply but very scanty materials 

 indeed for this part of our book. We shall take them, how- 

 ever, in succession, omitting all mention of those which pre- 

 sent nothing of popular interest, and confining ourselves to 

 the few of whose habits any thing is known. Our per- 

 formance here will, therefore, be necessarily somewhat meagre, 

 but the difficulty of it will be best appreciated by such as 

 have attempted a similar task. 



And first, of the Brachini. Solander had observed that 

 the carabus crepitans of Linnaeus, B. crepitans, Fab., an 

 insect very common in Europe under stones, caused to issue 

 from the anus with an exploding noise when it was disturbed, 

 or desirous of terrifying its enemy, a liquor of a penetrating 

 odour, and exhaling itself in vapour. It has been since 

 remarked that this property was common to many other 

 species of an analogous form, as well indigenous as exotic. 

 It is with these insects that M. Weber has formed the genus 

 Brachinus. 



In M. Latreille''s general history of Crustacea and insects, 

 the brachini, with agra and lebia, comprise a family to which, 

 from the phenomenon above alluded to, he gives the French 

 name " Bombardiers.'''' M. de Clair villc has criticized this 



