Marvels of the Universe 



465 



THE 



There is no member 

 this Beetle. He is here shown attack 

 \vhich has been used to annoy him. 



[./. ./. 11;, 



DEVIL'S COACH-HORSE. 



f the insect world 



the 



pugnacious as 

 stalk of a leat 



nature coiild tolerate, and in an instant he 



turned completely round, fully prepared for 



battle. He held his head low down and half 



raised his tail, and seemed all ready to make a 



sudden and ferocious charge — as shown in the 



first pliotograph on page 467. Probablj' that 



manoeuvre scares awav man's- of his foes ; his 



tactic, however, is to in^-ite the charge rather 



than to make it. 



He. therefore, adopted his usual procedure 



and once more became motionless in his 



changed attitude. Another movement of m\ 



toe instantly produced another and more 



desperate posture. He rapidly changed the 



position of his legs, raised high his tail in 



scorpion fashion, opened wdde his huge jaw^ 



(which open sideways), and positi\-ely glared 

 with his cruel-looking eyes in a most sa\-age 

 manner — as the second photograph on page 467 

 shows. Then from a pair of glands at the tip 

 of his tail he discharged two globules of a 

 volatile fluid with a horrible odour. 



Brave would have been the insectivorous foe that dared to tackle such a meal. Doubtless, 

 in the course of his life he had scared away many birds, hedgehogs, toads, lizards, and similar enemies 

 by these same manoeuvres, but he had never before met a wandering naturalist bent on seeing what 

 fighting powers a Devil's Coach-horse Beetle really possessed. Here, therefore, was a new venture 

 for this fellow of menacing attitudes. After the one discharge of the e\-il fluid, that means 

 of defence was for the time being ex- 

 hausted. Its next defence is its jaws, for 

 although its tail assumes a stinging posture, 

 yet it is quite incapable of stinging. So 

 its wide-opened mandibles would be the 

 foe's next consideration. Can it really 

 bite ? the unsatisfied attacker would naturally 

 inquire. 



A small folded portion of coarse brown; 

 paper would probably represent a fairly tough 

 natural foe. So with that object in one hand 

 and the camera release ball in the other I made 

 some experiments. I gently pushed the folded 

 paper towards him. He at once savagely seized 

 it, much after the manner of an angry bull- 

 dog, attacking it not only with his mandibles, 

 but also with his legs. He held it so firmly 

 that I was able to lift him up from the ground 

 (see photograph), but this movement only 

 made liim still more desperately angry — as 

 shown in the next photograph. So he held 

 on literally with " tooth and nail." 



:,/ ./, W.irrI, F.E.a. 



THE DEVILS COACH-HORSE. 



So furiously has he laid hold of the cause of his annoyance 

 that he has been lifted up bodily from the ground hanging 

 to the leaf-stalli entirely by his jaws. 



