QA MEANS OF DEFENCE OF INSECTS. 
clean feeders, the carrion beetles (Si/pha, L.), as might 
be expected from the nature of their food, are at the same 
time very fetid.—Pliny tells us of a Blatta,—which, from 
his description, is evidently the darkling-beetle (Slaps 
mortisaga, F'.), and which he recommends as an infallible 
nostrum, when applied with oil extracted from the cedar, 
in otherwise incurable ulcers,—that was an object of ge- 
neral disgust on account of its ill scent, a character which 
it still maintains?.—Numbers of the Carabide (a kind of 
black beetles that run very fast, and are found under 
stones, and in places that have not a free circulation of 
air,) exhale a most disagreeable and penetrating odour, 
which De Geer observes resembles that of rancid butter, 
and is not soon got rid of. It is produced, he says, from an 
unctuous matter that transpires through the body®; but 
I am rather inclined to think it proceeds from the extre- 
mity.—I have noticed that some small beetles of the 
Omalium genus Grav.—for instance O. rivulare, and an- 
other species that I once found in abundance on the prim- 
rose (O. Primula, K. Ms.), especially the latter—are abo- 
minably fetid when taken, and that it requires more than 
one washing to free the fingers from it. Every one knows 
that the cock-roach (Blatta orientalis, L.), belonging to 
the Orthoptera order, is not remarkable for a pleasant 
scent ;—but none are more notorious for their bad cha- 
racter in this respect than the bug tribe (Czmicid@), which 
almost universally exhale an odour that mixes with the 
scent of cucumbers another extremely unpleasant and an- 
noying. Some however are less disgusting, particularly 
Lygeus Hyoscyami, ¥., which yields, De Geer found, an 
a Fist, Nat. 1. xxix. c. 6. > iy. 86, 
