THE COMMON COCKCHAFFER. 377 



carry down a bubble of air on the tip of the abdomen, and when the supply is exhausted rise 

 for more. 



Passing by several large and interesting families, we come to curious creatures, popularly 

 known by the name of Rove Beetles, or Cocktails, the latter name being given to them on 

 account of their habit of curling up the abdomen when they are alarmed or irritated. The 

 common Black Cocktail has, when it assumes this attitude, standing its ground defiantly 

 with open jaws and elevated tail, so diabolical an aspect that the rustics generally call it the 

 devil's coach-horse. It has, moreover, the power of throwing out a most disgusting odor, which 

 is penetrating and persistent to a degree, refusing to be driven off even with many washings. 



These beetles are termed Staphylinidse, or Brachelytra, the latter term signifying short 

 elytra. 



Two species, scientifically termed Ocypus olens and CreopMlus maxillosus, are common 

 throughout Europe. The latter is plentiful in and about drains or dead animal matter, and 

 may be known by the gray hairy look of the elytra. There is a smaller species {Stapliylinus 

 erytJiropterus) which has the elytra of a dusky red, and is not so common as the preceding- 

 insect. I have often remarked that the red-backed shrike is very fond of this insect, and 

 used to find the nests of the shrike by means of the beetles that the bird had stuck upon the 

 thorns near its home. 



The Staphylinidse include a vast number of species that may be found in almost eveiy 

 imaginable locality, and live on almost every imaginable kind of food. 



The StapTiylinidce, or Rove Beetles, are extremely common in the United States, and 

 useful as scavengers. The Historidce and several other families include the common Dung or 

 Carrion Beetles. Necroplwrus is a very common form. 



Next to the Staphylinidse are placed some insects that have become quite famous for 

 their curious and valuable habits. These are the Necrophagse, popularly and appropriately 

 termed Burying Beetles. 



It is owing to the exertions of these little scavengers that the carcases of birds, small \ 

 mammals, and reptiles are never seen to cumber the ground, being buried at a depth of several 

 inches, where they serve to increase the fertility of the earth instead of tainting the purity of 

 the atmosphere. These beetles may easily be captured by laying a dead mouse, mole, bird, 

 frog, or even a piece of meat on the ground, and marking the spot so as to be able to find the 

 place where it had been laid. It will hardly have remained there for a couple of hours before 

 some Burying Beetle will have found it out, and straightway set to work at its interment. 

 The plan adopted is by burrowing underneath the corpse and scratching away the earth so as 

 to form a hollow, into which the body sinks. When the beetles have worked for some time 

 they are quite hidden, and the dead animal seems to subside into the ground as if by magic. 



The object of burying dead animals is to gain a proper spot wherein to deposit their eggs, 

 as the larvae when hatched feed wholly on decaying animal substance. 



In the accompanying full-page illustration many figures are given of the Burying Beetles, 

 showing them while in the act of interring a dead bird. 



We now come to the Lamellicorn beetles, so called from the beautiful plates, or lamella?, 

 which decorate the antenna?. This family includes a vast number of species, many of which, 

 as, for exa"mple, the Common Cockchafer, are extremely hurtful to vegetation both in the 

 larval and adult form- In this family are found the most gigantic specimens of the Coleoptera, 

 some of which look more like crabs than beetles, so huge are they and so bizarre are their 

 shapes. In all these creatures the lamella? are larger and more beautiful in the female than in 

 the male insect. 



The Common Cockchaffer is too familiar to need any description of its personal appear- 

 ance, but the history of its life is not so widely known as its aspect. The mother beetle 

 commences operations by depositing the eggs in the ground, where in good time the young are 

 hatched. The grubs are unsightly-looking objects, having the end of the body so curved that 



Vol. m.-4S. 



