THE ANIMAL KINGDOM. 



235 



are in especial the Calosoma?, the Cicindelse, and the 

 Carabi, all gleaming with pnq^le and gold, which, full of 

 valour, courageously throw themselves upon all insects 

 that pass within reach. In another place we find the 

 insidious Scarites concealed in their imderground dwell- 

 ings, and entrapping their prey as it passes. 



Instead of pitilessly destroying these beneficent Coleop- 

 tera, as is generally done when we see them in our gardens 



143. Giant Sciirites in its Lurking-place. 



and fields, one ought to protect them; for they devour en 

 masse the caterpillars which ruin them. 



tainous districts running about immediately after a thunderstorm, each having 

 a tolerably large earth-worm in its mouth; others, as the splendid Calo.ioma syco- 

 plianta, live entirely upon caterpillars in trees ; and there is one which well de- 

 serves notice from its feeding upon the wire-worms. It is called Steropus madidus, 

 from its inhabiting wet and damp localities. It is a very active insect; it prowls 

 about at night, and is admirably adapted to its predacious mode of life. — Farm 

 Insects, by .John CJurtis. F.L.S. 



