OF THE ORDER COLEOPTERA. 277 



seize with their powerful mandibles, and often devour in 

 common. They shed a very strong and disagreeable odour, 

 which approaches that of tobacco, and some poisonous, or 

 suspected plants. When they are taken they cavise to issue 

 from the anus, a blackish liquor, very irritating and acrid, 

 the odour of which is still more disagreeable than that shed 

 from their body. Their larvae have not yet been observed 

 or described, but, in all probability, they resemble those of 

 procrustes, which are known. 



The coleoptera, designated by the ancients under the name 

 of carabus, appear to be very different from those now so 

 called ; since, according to those authors, they proceeded 

 from larvae living in dry wood. They are, pi'obably, capri- 

 corns, or other analogous insects. It is presumable that the 

 earlier naturalists comprehended our carabi, properly so 

 called, among the cantharides, as they are, by persons igno- 

 rant of natural history, at the present day. Olivier, who in 

 this respect follows the sentiments of Geoff'roy, says that the 

 ancients regarded those insects as a poison to such cattle as 

 swallowed any of them mixed up with the grass which they 

 fed on in the fields and meadows. They believed them 

 capable of inflaming the intestines of these animals, by their 

 caustic character. It Avas on account of this maleficent 

 quality that they bestowed on them the name of huprestis. 



Hippocrates, Pliny, and the ancient physicians, attribute 

 to them a virtue but little inferior to that of the cantharides. 

 They made use of them in various maladies, in hydrophy, in 

 >>/ tympanitis^ and especially in some maladies to which women 

 are more especially subjected. They used to administer them 

 internally, in very small doses, and sometimes employed them 

 in pessories, mingled with aromatic substances. 



The Calosoma have some general resemblance to the last 

 sub-genus. They are tolerably large insects, and often 

 adorned with metallic colours of the most brilliant dve. 



