If the reader will refer to Plate II. Fig. 2, he will see represented an episode in insect life which is not common in England, where the insect is scarce, though sufficiently so on the Continent, where it is plentiful. It seems very strange that so narrow a strip of sea should separate so many insects from us, especially as vessels are continually passing backwards and forwards. It is a fact, however, that many of our very rarest insects are quite common on the opposite coasts of France, where they live under exactly similar conditions as those of our own island. I cannot but think that, in cases where the insect is, as in the present instance, an extremely useful one, any entomologist would be doing a patriotic act by bringing over a number of them and turning them out to get their living in England.

There is no difficulty in distinguishing the genus Calosoma from Carabus. The body and thorax are much more globose and rounded, the third joint of the antennae is flattened, and well-developed wings are seen beneath the elytra.

This handsome Beetle, called scientifically Calosoma sycojjhanta, ranks among om’ rarest British insects, but absolutely swarms in many parts of the Continent, being so plentiful in fii-woods, that if an entomologist go out at night, after the

maimer of his kind, with sugar and a lantern, the trunks of

tlie trees appear to be quite studded with gems, which are the

shining green bodies of the Calosoma.

The name Calosoma is formed from two G-reek words, signifying beautiful body, and is more appropriate than the generality of insect names. The head and thorax are very deep violet, almost amounting to black, the violet being most brilliant on the margins of the thorax, which are flattened and slightly turned up like the brim of a hat. The whole surface of the thorax is finely granulated, and there is a faint but distinct groove along its centre. The elytra are singularly beautiful. They are gold-green ‘ shot ’ with blue, the hues shifting, like those of a pigeon’s neck, with every change of light. They are deeply and regularly striated, and on each elytron there are three rows of rather deep punctures, placed at some distance apart. Counting from the sutm-e, the punctures are placed on the fourth, eighth, and twelfth striae. Although they are well marked, they cannot be properly seen without a magnifying glass, though when viewed with a side-light they look like three rows of tiny glittering points. Beneath, the insect is black, glossed with bronze. Its length is rather more than an inch.

It is impossible to calculate the benefit which this beautiful insect confers upon the countries in which it lives, and it is not too much to say that but for the Calosoma the fir-tree would be extinct in many of those places from which we derive our chief stores of timber. Both in the perfect and larval conditions it IS carnivorous, feeding upon certain destructive caterpillars belonging to the Bombycidas, among which those of the

rocessmnary Moth {Gnethocampa processionea) and the Gipsy Moth ^Upans dupar) are the most conspicuous. It does not, howevei, feed only on the caterpillars of moths, but also devoius

a of the Pine Saw Flj {Lophyrus pini), thus selecting, vuth a curious instinct, the very creatures which do most harS represented as looking 11% . I 1 down from Wch to which it has Brown-tail Moth’s nest. climbed in search of thf

Although it eats many of these larvae after it has attained _ e perfect form, it commits the greatest ravages while itself in the larval condition. In this state it is ugly as when It becomes a itrbrnntH Beetle. It is a

something like that of the Carabus, flattened and scaly on the upper surface of each segment and the head. It has two large, sharp, curved, and powerful mandibles, from which no caterpillar has a chance of escape, and there are two horny spines at the end of the tail. Its length, when full-grown, is about an inch and a half.

The voracity of this larva is amazing. It will eat several caterpillars, and even pupse, daily, and gorges itself to such an extent that the soft body becomes quite distended like that of a full-fed leech, and the creature is quite incapable of moving. In this condition it often falls a victim to its own voracity, and that in rather a curious manner. It has been mentioned that, among other insects, the Processionary Moth forms a large proportion of its food. Now the caterpillars of this moth are social in their habits, and spin large webs, in which they live together. Into these nests the larva of the Calosoma is sure to creep, and sometimes as many as five or six have been found in the same web, feeding on the inmates. Sometimes it happens that a Calosoma grub, hungry and wandering in search of food, discovers a nest of Processionaiy caterpillars, and straightway makes its entrance. Being very hungry, it seizes the first creature to which it comes, and sometimes catches its gorged and helpless relative, which it devours without the least compunction.

I have already mentioned that the Calosoma is in all probability the means of preserving the supply of fir-wood. In some years, as often happens with destructive insects, sundry pinefeeding caterpillars absolutely swarm in the forest, the insect armies being so vast that anyone walking through the forest hears the sound of their busy jaws on every side as they devour the leaves. With any tree such a visitation would be a misfortime, but with the pine-trees it is death. Ordinary trees, if stripped of their leaves, will put forth a fresh set of foliage in the succeeding year, and suffer little except being thrown back in their growth ; but a pine-tree, when deprived of its leaves, has no such power, and always dies. The reader will, therefore, see how invaluable are the services rendered to man by this insect, which keeps down the numbers of the obnoxious caterpillars, and saves whole forests from destruction.

Trees that have been perishing through the attacks of caterpillars have been saved by the Calosoma. Some years ago.

M. Boisgerard, finding that some trees were being ravaged by the caterpillars of the Gripsy Moth, placed upon the trees several females of this Beetle, and simply left them. Next year, the caterpillars appeared as usual, but in their nests were the larvjB of the Calosoma, and in two or three years the destructive caterpillars were completely cleared off.

I should not be at all sm-prised if the insect could be employed in England for the same purpose. It would have plenty of food among the caterpillar armies that occasionally devastate certain localities; and, if at first it could escape the fingers of collectors, it might have a chance of becoming naturalised here, and rendering to England the services which at present it performs on the Continent. It is noteworthy that the first recorded British specimen of this splendid insect was captured at Aldborough, by Crabbe, the poet.

Another species of the same genus is found in England, and is less rare than the preceding insect. This is Calosoma inquisitoi'. It is about three-quarters of an inch in length, and, though a beautiful Beetle, is not so handsome as its larger relative. A fine specimen now before me was captured by myself in Bagley Wood, in the year 1846, at which time that happy hunting ground of entomologists was open to all who went there for entomological purposes, and did not disturb the game. It had but lately emerged from the pupal state, and I found it under a stone, where it was hiding itself until its soft elytra had gained their hardness. It was so soft, indeed, that I was almost afraid to handle it, lest its shape should be injured. However, it soon became hard and glossy, and, never having been^ exposed to injury, is a singularly perfect specimen. I find in the MbS. of the late Mr. Hope, which he kindly lent me, that, in the summer of 1820, several were beaten out of the foliage of oaks, and others dug from beneath the roots of the same trees in the early spring.

The colour of this Beetle is very beautiful. The head and thorax are very deep bronze-green, and finely granulated, the latter having a very deep pit on either side near the hinder angle, and its edge being very bright blue-green. The elytra are of a similar colour, and covered with striae. Each stria is broken at short intervals with transverse lines, perceptible even

to the naked eye, and the edges are bright blue-green, like those of the thorax. There are three rows of impressions on the elytra, similar to those upon the preceding species, but not so shining. The under surface of this handsome insect is dull blue-green, and the legs and antennjE are black.

Next in order comes the plainly-coloured, but elegantlyshaped insect called Gychrus rostratus, the only British example of the genus, a figure of which is given on Plate II. Fig. 4.

The members of this genus can easily be distinguished by the long and slender head and thorax, by the very large elytra, which lap over the abdomen on either side, and by the projecting mandibles. The last-mentioned peculiarity has earned for the insect the specific title of rostratus, or ‘ beaked,’ and, indeed, the mandibles, head, and thorax are so prolonged, that the insect might easily be mistaken for one of the larger weevils.

To the unassisted eye this is a very dull-coloured insect, appearing to be uniform black-brown ; but when viewed through a magnifying glass, the surface of the thorax is seen to be thickly wrinkled and punctmred, and that of the elytra finely granulated, so that a soft and satiny gloss is imparted to the otherwise unattractive sm-face. Its length is, on an average, rather more than three-quarters of an inch.

It is not reckoned among our common insects, probably on account of its habit of concealing itself in dark places, in which it may easily escape observation in consequence of its sombre colouring. It is to be found under heaps of leaves, stones, or wood-piles, such as are left by the fagot-makers. I have taken it in Wiltshire and about Oxford. This is one of the very few Coleoptera which can produce any sound, and the squeaking noise which is heard when the Beetle is handled, is thought to be produced by the friction of the elytra against the tip of the abdomen. The beautiful Musk Beetle produces a similar sound, which will be described when we come to that insect.

Tlie larva of the Gychrus is something like that of Carabus, but shorter and broader, and the projecting spines at the end of the body are very short and without spurs. The palpi of

I this genus have the last joint very large and axe-shaped. Here backwards and forwards, of a Beetle, and it without will snap doing off. the How least put injury it into to I head and mouth ’ I may mention that nothing is easier than to examine the tlie specimen, even though it be hard and dry in the cabinet. Take the head between the points of the forceps, bend it gently

warm water, and let it remain there until the parts are quite relaxed. Then stick a needle perpendicularly into a piece of cork, and run the eye portion into the ‘ occipital ’ hole, i.e. that at the junction of the head and thorax. With a fine needle, the parts of the mouth can be drawn out so as to be properly displayed, and, when they have been examined, the head can be replaced, and fixed, rather firmer than before, by a small drop of coaguline. This will be found a good plan when a Beetle has been badly set, and the parts of the mouth are not ' properly seen.

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