120 
HATT7EAL HISTORY OP 
the elytra. The species are confined to certain dis- 
tricts of Asia, and the African continent. Even 
the southern shores of Europe, of which the vege- 
table and animal productions become strongly assi- 
milated to those of Africa, have not hitherto afford- 
ed any examples. They delight in an arid and 
sandy soil, in which they form shallow excavations, 
and lie in wait for their prey. In manners, and 
even in the figure of their bodies, they bear a greater 
resemblance to the beetle named Broscus cephalotes , 
found abundantly on the sandy shores of the sea in 
many places both in England and Scotland, than 
to any other British insect. They partake of the 
form which prevails among beetles accustomed to 
burrow in the soil, and which is best exemplified in 
the Scarites and Clivinse, or mole-beetles, as they 
are sometimes called, which live chiefly beneath the 
ground. The head is very thick and strong, fitted 
to make its way through a resisting medium, and 
the thorax is attached to the abdomen by a narrow 
neck-like portion, which admits of the anterior part 
of the body being easily turned in a lateral direc- 
tion, and therefore answers the same purposes as 
the flexibility of the vertebral column in moles and 
other burrowing quadrupeds. The hinder part of 
the body is considerably wider than the anterior, a 
circumstance never observed in burrowing beetles 
properly so called, as it would materially impede the 
insect’s progress through its cylindrical excavations. 
The species figured is 
