234 



THE UNIVERSE. 



worms, snails, and rodent animals injurious to our dwell- 

 ings. Far from devastating our gardens, it protects them. 

 This is well known in some countries— Astrachan, for 

 instance, where it is substituted for the cat in the town- 

 houses. 



To these notoriously active auxiliaries must be added 



Flesh-eating Coleoptera of the family CarabicUe, 

 140. Calosoma sycophanta. 141. Anthia duodecimpunctata. 142. Carahus gryphcf^us. 



an ample host of smaller ones; the work of which, how- 

 ever, when multiplied, amounts to a large figure. They are 

 found as a providential compensation in that class of 

 insects which causes us such damage. These benefactors — 

 lost, unrecognized in the midst of the enemy — belong 

 principally to the I'avenous-j awed Carabidiie family;^ they 



1 Thousands of iuseets called Carahidce, varying greatly in size, from half a 

 line to an incli in length, may be found under stones and clods in fields, meadows, 

 and gardens, where they secrete themselves by day, and sally forth at night to 

 feed upon other insects, worms, larvre, &c., which come to the surface at that 

 period, either to feed or to migrate ; they are consei:[ueutly eminently serviceable 

 in reducing the rants of noxious animals. During a drought they retire into 

 cracks in the earth and to the most humid spots, and evidently enjoy the re- 

 freshing rains which succeed. I have seen the large Carabus glahratus in moun- 



