Insects. 339 



were aiding in the slaughter of the unfortunate little reptiles, but none, as far as I 

 could detect, of the other Carabi or larger Harpalidae. C. cancellatus differs consider- 

 ably from its congeners in its general habits, separated elytra, and rudimentary wings, 

 which I think it possible may be used for flight; since however inadequate they may 

 appear for such a purpose, they are at least as well adapted for it as those of Phosphu- 

 ga atrata, which I have several times taken on the wing. I never saw, in any Eng- 

 lish work on Natural History, any notice of the power possessed by the Carabi (I can 

 personally answer for C. cancellatus, neraoralis and violaceus) of ejecting an acrid fluid 

 h 'posteriori with considerable force to a distance of six or eight inches, and generally 

 so well directed as to strike their captor in the eye. This has not escaped the notice 

 of the continental entomologists, and the incident quoted by Kirby and Spence (In- 

 troduction, ii. 244, 5th edition) is probably referable to it. The Carabi do not appear 

 to be often infested with mites, at least to any extent ; but in May, this year, a speci- 

 men of C. monilis was brought to me, so completely and thickly encrusted with close- 

 ly-adhering parasites (I believe Uropoda) that I was not able to determine the species 

 until I had partially removed them, which I did not effect without some difficulty. It 

 was found under a garden pot, where it had probably been imprisoned, and then at- 

 tacked, or rather overwhelmed, by this swarm of enemies. I am not aware that any 

 of the Carabi, or indeed any of the Geodephaga except Broscus cephalotes (Zool. 271), 

 prey on their own species when other food is to be had, but to the smaller Harpalidae 

 they show no mercy : and I once found C. cancellatus making a meal on Abax striola, 

 which I should have imagined almost a match for its assailant. C. violaceus I have 

 very frequently found in houses infested by cockroaches and crickets, preying on these 

 insects — and it seems to be the only species with these domestic habits, as I do not re- 

 member finding any of the other common species in such situations, except stray in- 

 dividuals, in localities where they were more numerous than C. violaceus. As I have 

 been remarkably fortunate in the acquisition of the rarer Sritish species, 1 subjoin a 

 few localities. C. intricatus I took in August, 1836, near Holdsworthy in Devonshire, 

 a remarkably fine female specimen, fully 1 5 lines long : and in September of the same 

 year, I took a specimen of C. convexus at Winstanley hall in Lancashire. Of C. gra- 

 nulatus I have a specimen that was taken by a friend, near Doncaster. And of C. 

 purpurascens, which Stephens in his ' Manual ' has admitted as British, I at one time 

 thought myself the possessor of the only authentic British specimen, which fell into 

 my hands as follows. I was in the shop of a Natural- History dealer in London, when 

 two ragged Spanish legionaries came in, whom he had employed to collect insects on 

 the Surrey hills ; and out of a vast number of specimens of all sorts thus obtained, he 

 allowed me, for half-a-crown, to pick out what I wanted before he dried and set them, 

 stipulating, with laudable caution, that t should take none of the Lucani, Ceramby- 

 ces, and other showy species. I had certainly no reason to complain of the bargain 

 thus made, as besides C. purpurascens, I acquired, I think, fifteen other species which 

 were deficient in my cabinet. The names above given are those of the 2nd edition of 

 Stephens's ' Nomenclature,' some of them, as cancellatus and granulatus, having been 

 transposed in the ' Manual.' — Fredk. Holme ; C. C. C. Oxford. 



Note on Agonum ajffine. Of this insect, said by Stephens to be rare, I took twen- 

 ty-eight specimens at the foot of a tree in Christchurch meadow, in January, 1836, but 

 have not found it there since. Mr. Matthews has taken it at Weston-on-the-Green. Id. 



Note on the Habits of some Species of Aniara. Some species of this genus, contra- 

 ry to the usual habits of the Harpalidae, counterfeit death when taken, folding back 

 the antennae and limbs, and remaining motionless when taken into the hand ; when 



