CHAP. XXXII.] 



FIGHTING BEETLES. 



277 



were fighting for a female, who stood close by busy at her 

 boring. They pushed at each other with their rostra, and 

 clawed and thumped, apparently in the greatest rage, 

 although their coats of mail must have saved both from 

 injury. The small one, however, soon ran away, acknow- 

 ledging himself vanquished. In most Coleoptera the 



MALi£ BRENTHID^ (Leptorhynchus angustatus) fighting. 



female is larger than the male, and it is therefore interest- 

 ing, as bearing on the question of sexual selection, that in 

 this case, as in the stag-beetles where the males fight 

 together, they should be not only better armed, but also 

 much larger than the females. 



Just as we were going away, a handsome tree, allied to 

 Erythrina, was in blossom, showing its masses of large 

 crimson flowers scattered here and there about the forest. 



