302 SUPPLEMENT ON THE FAMILY BRACHELYTRA 



they pursue them in the fields, attack them Avith advantage, 

 and combat them with bitterness. But they appear to have 

 been more especially designed for the reduction of carcasses 

 to their final state of dissolution. Among these the majority 

 of them establish their dwelling, and there it is (however dis- 

 gusting the task) that we must resolve to seek for them. 

 This kind of habitation, but little calculated to attract the 

 attention of naturalists, must for a long period have prevented 

 their acquaintance with a great number of these insects, and 

 no doubt must still keep many of them undiscovered. Ne- 

 vertheless it must in fine be acknowledged, that the objects 

 which false delicacy repels with the utmost degree of disdain, 

 are those which are often most calculated to repay the zeal of 

 the curious observers of the productions of nature. 



The head of the Staphylini, usually very broad, is furnished 

 in front with two teeth or mandibles, which at once announces 

 the instinct or habitual character of the animal. These 

 teeth are large, curved and pointed. In a state of inaction 

 they repose one upon the other, and cross by their points ; 

 but when the insect opens them they give an air which might 

 well appear terrible if the animal was capable of imposing on 

 the observer by its general bulk. Their substance is ex- 

 tremely hard, and their colour, in general, is black. The 

 mere aspect of these redoubtable teeth would indicate that the 

 staphylinus employed them to seize and devour whatever 

 insects it could catch. Nor would this opinion be unfounded ; 

 it is an animal of the most extreme voracity, which often does 

 not even spare its consimilars. Degeer relates, that having 

 presented a fly to a large species of staphylinus, the latter 

 seized it at once, plunged its murderous teeth into its body, 

 and finally tore it in pieces with its denticulations. The na- 

 ture of this insect is discovered the moment one desires to lay 

 hold of it ; it endeavours to defend itself, and to bite the 

 fingers which detain it. 



