256 LIFE AND HER CHILDREN. 
when it is attacked, the common garden beetle or 
Carabus which pours a black fluid on your fingers 
when you catch it, and even the delicate little Lady- 
bird, which is a true beetle, are all animal feeders, 
and they destroy a whole host of insects, such 
as aphides, caterpillars, weevils, cockchafers, centi- 
pedes, and flies. The young wingless lady-bird 
creeps after the aphides, eating them one by one 
up the stem (as we saw the blind -grub of the fly 
doing in Fig. 69), while the grubs of the tiger-beetle 
have a most cunning way of catching their food, for 
they bury themselves in the soil with their mouths 
just above the ground, so that the ants and small 
insects run heedlessly into their jaws. 
These, and many other beetles, feed greedily upon 
living creatures, and are quite as eager hunters of 
small animals as lions and tigers are among large 
ones. You need only watch the ugly cocktail beetle 
(Plate II. p. 135) scampering after some insect, or seiz- 
ing upon one of its weaker brethren as it cocks up its 
head and tail, and snaps its sharp jaws, to understand 
how aggressive these creatures can be. Among the 
water-beetles too, though some, such as the black 
water -beetle,"' 5 " are vegetarians, yet many are most 
voracious and cruel ; the true water-beetlef (Fig. 88) 
which dives and swims so powerfully with its broad 
hind legs, and carries air under its closed wing-cases, 
is one of the most greedy of water animals, both as e 
grub and beetle. Not only does it devour the gruds 
of may-flies, dragon-flies, and other pond insects, 
but it feeds on snails, tadpoles, and fish ; taking 
care, however, to burrow deep in the earth out of 
* Hydrophilus. * t Dyticus marginalis. 
