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PLATE XLTIL 



MELOE. PROSCARABEUS, 



COLEOPTERA. 



GENERIC CHARACTER. 



Antennae globular, the laft globule oval. Thorax roundifli. Shells 

 foft. Head gibbous, and bent downwards. 



SPECIFIC CHARACTER. 



Blue, black. No wings. Shells fhort. Abdomen long. Antennas 

 thickeft in the middle. Head broad. Thorax narrower than the 



head, and without margin. Length i| inch. -Syji, Ent. 259. i. 



' — Linn. Syji. Nat. 2. 679. i. — Fn. Sv. 826. 



It is by no means for the beauty, but Angularity of this creature that 

 we have given it a place in our prefent feledion. If it is too perfedl 

 for the larva of an Infe<5t, it certainly appears too imperfe6l for the 

 adult ftate ; it has (hells, but cannot fly, and their length compared 

 with the proportion of the body contributes much to its awkward ap- 

 pearance. It is very quick-fighted, and runs with fwiftnefs when in 

 danger. After death the body is confiderably contracted, and the 

 native brilliancy of colour it poffeffed while living immediately va- 

 nilhes. When touchedj a brown liquor oozes from the fides. 



We have feveral fpecies of the Meloe differing in fize, colour, and 

 proportion ; the Meloe Profca7'abeus is the moft common, at leaft near 

 London. It feeds under the furface of the ground, on the tender 

 fibrils of plants, and prefers the light earth of the flower-garden for 

 its devaftation. May be taken in May or June. 



D 2 ■ P L AT E 



