256 NATURE STUDY AND LIFE 



hunts over trees in search of caterpillars. It has also 

 been described as climbing cornstalks, stopping appar- 

 ently to listen at the tip of the ear, and if a corn worm 

 is within, it speedily drags it out and devours it. 



Calosonia calidum is another lion beetle, a little smaller 

 than the above, shining black, with three rows of copper- 

 colored pits down each wing cover. This is chiefly noc- 

 turnal and is said to feed largely on cutworms. The larvae 

 of both the Calosomas are flat, fish-shaped creatures, some- 

 times two inches long, with somewhat the appearance of 

 having pincers at both ends. They are fierce hunters after 

 caterpillars, climbing trees and often burrowing in the 

 ground after cutworms. They may be found in the daytime 

 generally under boards, stones, or heaps of leaves and rubbish. 



The Tiger Beetles, CicitidelidcB. — These are described 

 both in appearance and in character by their common 

 name. They are the lively beetles that we have all seen 

 in dusty roads, which fly up as we approach and always 

 alight with head toward us. Their color is usually green 

 or bronze, spotted and banded with yellow, but some are 

 sand colored. Their larvae are ugly but very interesting 

 creatures. They live in vertical burrows, often a foot 

 deep. The flattened dirt-colored head with its jaws wide 

 open fills and conceals the opening, and unsuspecting 

 insects, as they walk over, are seized, dragged down to the 

 bottom, and there devoured. 



The Bombardier Beetles. — There is certainly nothing 

 more startling and comical than one of these insects — 

 "a regular sharp-shooter, blue uniform and all."^ They 



1 Gibson, Sharp Eyes, p. 73, gives an amusing account of a bombardier 

 beetle. 



