BRACHINIDiE. INSECTS. Galekita. 205 
and eye.” The pale-coloured species are confined to 
the most extensive of the sandy beaches, where the 
sand is finest and whitest. 
Mr. Bates found the larvse of the Megacephalm in 
the same sandy districts frequented by the perfect 
insects. They live in cylindrical burrows, where tliey 
lie in wait for their prey. As in the Tiger beetles, the 
head in the larva is broad, semicircular, and hollowed 
above, with the mandibles curved upwards, so as to be 
able to seize anything which may fall on the concave 
upper surface of the head. He describes the larvse as 
being so rapacious and irritable that they seize at any- 
thing that disturbs them. In this way they are easily 
taken by inserting a straw in their burrows, which they 
instantly seize with their mandibles and pertinaciously 
retain. This is the case with our common Tiger beetle, 
Cicindela campestris. 
The average length of the species is from six to 
eight lines long, but one of the pale-coloured species 
— the Megacephala testudinea of King — is nearly an 
inch in length. To the pale-coloured species Mr. 
Westwood has applied the name Ammosia^ from the 
Greek word for sand. Our finest species is the Cicindela 
sylvatica, which is common on the heaths of Surrey 
and Hampshire. 
Many of the Indian species are very finely coloured. 
A beautiful one from India the writer named C. 
Hamiltoniana, has a yellow stripe down each elytron. 
To another delicate green one, from the Neilgherry 
hills, or rather from Coimbatoor, I have given the 
name of Cicindela Walhousei. 
The white Cicindelse are very curious, and, indeed, 
the diversity of marking and sculpture in the various 
species of Tiger beetles is quite a study. Mr. Thomson 
of Paris has monographed them in a fine quarto work. 
Therates. — The species of Therates are large- 
eyed, and have a very big upper lip. They are found 
in the Eastern islands, and have great powers of flight. 
Like our Tiger beetles, they take flight on the slightest 
alarm. One specimen, Mr. Adams observes, “had just 
regaled himself with a fly, which I allowed him to eat 
up before I attempted to make him a prisoner.” He 
held the insect “ firmly with the dilated tarsi of the fore 
feet, had cut off the head with his powerful mandibles, 
and was busily intent in consuming the flesh of the 
inside of the thorax, shaking his prey occasionally like 
a tiger, which these Cicindelidae most assuredly repre- 
sent in the insect world.” 
Mr. Wallace has lately sent from Aru, and other 
Eastern islands, some curiously two-coloured species of 
this genus. 
Brachinid^ {Bombardier Beetles). — In most of 
these the elytra are truncated at the end, and the head 
and thorax are much narrower than the abdomen, 
which gives them altogether a peculiar appearance. 
The species of the typical genus, Brachinus, of which 
two or three are met with in this country, are able to 
defend themselves in a singular manner. When they 
are attacked, or suddenly stopped, these insects emit 
from the anus a volatile fluid, which has a pungent 
scent. This is accompanied with a considerable explo- 
sion. Mr. John Bowring found a large Brachinus in 
small societies under stones, on the highest peaks of 
the island of Hong Kong; he informs me they were 
plentiful under piles erected during the ordnance survey 
of Hong Kong. This species crepitates with consider- 
able power, firing off several discharges with great 
rapidity. The volatile liquid burns the hands and 
stains them, so that the marks are visible for many 
days. Another observer, who immersed a Brachinus 
in boiling water, records its bombardier powers, and 
says that the water, for about an inch around it, effer- 
vesced. Mr. Lewis states that a Tasmanian Lebia, 
when provoked, emitted a very pungent odour resem- 
bling muriatic acid, which, when applied to the nostrils, 
caused great irritation. Some authors have tried to 
throw doubts on the statement that the explosion of 
these insects is accompanied with noise. The following 
circumstance, however, communicated to me by the 
celebrated traveller Burchell, will be sufficient (were 
other evidence wanting, which is not the case) to con- 
firm the correctness of the recorded statement. While 
resting for the night on the banks of one of the large 
South American rivers, he went out with a lantern to 
make an astronomical observation, accompanied by one 
of his black servant boys ; and as they were proceed- 
ing, their attention was directed to numerous beetles 
running about upon the shore, which, when captured, 
proved to be specimens of a large species of Brachinus. 
On being seized, they immediately began to play off their 
artillery, burning and staining the flesh to such a degree 
that only a few specimens could be captured with the 
naked hand, leaving a mark which remained for a con- 
siderable time. On observing the whitish vapour by which 
the explosions were accompanied, the negro exclaimed 
with surprise, “ Ah ! massa, they make smoke.”* 
Fig. 62. Fig. 63. 
Here is figured the queer larva of Galerita Lecnntei 
— figs. 62 , 63 — a long-legged bluish-black beetle, with 
somewhat truncated elytra, black head, brownish-red 
* Introduction to Modern Classification, vol. i., p. 76. 
