156 THE UNIVERSE. 



from one of them, all the others fire at the same time; 

 there is a running fire along the whole line. ^ The sound 

 produced by these Coleoptera is intense enough to startle 

 those who do not know the ruse. We often see young 

 people who have seized one, let it escape suddenly from 

 their fingers, astonished by this singular attack.^ 



The mechanical nature of insects has only been main- 

 tained by those who have never observed them; on the 

 contrary, those naturalists who are acquainted with them 

 assign to them decidedly high faculties. 



A Hemipteron, the tricks of Avliich have rendered it 

 celebrated enough, the Jieduvius personatus, conceals 

 itself under a disguise quite as insidious as that of the 

 Crioceris, but which has the advantage of being infinitely 

 less disgusting. It covers itself Avith a rag of spider 

 threads and dust, in order to be less distinguishable from 

 the latter, in the midst of which it hides itself to watch for 

 the passing prey. 



Baron Geer, the Reaumur of Sweden, has described the 

 wiles of this insect in a very picturesque manner. "This 

 bug," he says, "in the state of a nymph, or before its wings 

 are developed, possesses a hideous and revolting exterior. 

 At the first look one might take it for one of the ugliest of 

 spiders. What makes it so disagreeable to the sight is its 

 being entirely covered and enveloped in a grayish matter, 



1 It is, according to Kolander, furnished with an apparatus which enables 

 it to discharge twenty shots iu succession. Another less-knowu species, the 

 small green beetle, Anchoyiiemcs j^rasinus, also fires ofl'reiJeated discharges. It is 

 found near London. — Tr. 



2 The bombardier, called also the Gunner Scarab^us {Brachinus crepitans) 

 belongs to the genus Brachinus. It is a little Coleopteron which lives beneath 

 stones. The gaseous iluid which produces the detonation has a puno-ent odour, 

 is acid, and reddens tincture of litmus. Some entomologists have considered 

 it as analogous to nitric acid, and add that when brought into contact with 

 the skin it produces a yellow stain. 



