The life history evenings the Beetles may be seen flying

In the autumn in large circles, as if they were predacious insects quarabout of prey. In one sense, this is tering the ground in search doing, as they are hunting after a faexactly what they are to place their eggs, and are wheeling over vourable spot wherein Attracted probably by the scent, the ground in hopes to find one.

the Beetle discovers a patch of cowdung, alights near it, crawls upon it, and straightway burrows through the soft material, and is lost to sight. When she — for it is the female who does the work — reaches the earth, she does not cease to bmrow, hut goes on with her labour until she has excavated a perpendicular tunnel some twelve inches in depth, and carried a quantity of the cowdung into it. In this substance she deposits an egg, crawls out of the burrow, and proceeds to make another, and so goes on until she has laid all her eggs.

The egg remains in its concealment until it is hatched, and then the larva consumes the food which its mother has taken the trouble to bring down for it. After this is eaten, the grub is strong enough to ascend the burrow and obtain as much food as it wants at the entrance. Within this retreat the larva passes through its transformations, and then ascends to the outer air, ready to take its part in the work of preparing nurseries for a future progeny. Five species of Greotrupes are known in England. Twice as many species have been described, but recent investigations have shown that exactly half the supposed species were simple varieties.

On Woodcut XIII. Fig. 1, is represented a Beetle of a very odd appearance, the sides of the thorax being prolonged into a pair of very formidable horns, a shorter horn occupying the centre of the anterior margin. This is the male Typhoeus vulgaris, the only British example of the genus. The female has only the veriest rudiments of horns, the anterior angles of the thorax being merely developed into a short, sharp prominence, like the teeth of a saw, while the place of the central horn is taken by a ridge running across the forehead. Indeed owing to the absence of these horns, the female is so unlike the other sex, that no one who was ignorant of entomology would be likely to believe the two creatures to be nothing more than different sexes of the same insect. The female so closely resembles the ordinary Dor Beetle, that the older entomologists comprised the Typhceus within the genus ° Geotrupes.

The name of Typhoeus was given to this genus in the days when classical mythology was the source of new names Ir insects, and to this genus the name of Typcnhus was given on

account of its menacing aspect, which was fancifully compared to the giant Typhoeus, who frightened Zeus and the other gods out of heaven merely by his looks. As, however, was the case with its ancient prototype, the Typhoeus is not nearly so terrible as it seems, and its array of horns cannot do the least injury to the hands of its capturer. At Fig. 6, on the same woodcut, the head of the female Typhoeus is shown. xm

Typhoeus fumatia. 2. Cercyon anale. 3. Doreus parallelopipedus. 4. Agnlus blgnttatus. 5. Elater sanguineuB. a. AgrUus, antenna. b. Typhffius, of femal . c. Elater, antenna. d. Elater, head, under side. e. Elater, larva. /. Agrilus, larva.

of mistaking this insect, which is

There is no possibility example of its genus ; which, in addition to the only British that have been akeady described, has the the characteristics first and last joints of the tarsus of equal length, and longer the others. The colour of tlie insect is shining-black, the than regularly but not very deeply striated. There iSj elytra being variation in this insect, as even in some however, considerable

males the horns are comparatively small, and little better developed than those of the female. The colour also slightly

varies, a warm-chestnut tint underlying the black, so that the

entomologist ought to procure a series of specimens, in order to show the usual varieties of form and colour. It varies in size as well as in colour, some specimens being five-sixths of an inch in length, while others are barely half an inch long. This extreme difference in size is common among the Lamellicornes.

Considering that the Typhoeus is a very common insect, it is surprisingly little known, and I have often found that entomologists who restricted themselves to the Lepidoptera alone have been totally ignorant of its existence, and expressed much sm-prise when I showed them a fine male Typhoeus. This insect is in one sense an extremely interesting one, inasmuch as it is one of our few British examples of the strange and almost grotesque forms assumed by male Lamellicornes, but which are seldom seen except in exotic Beetles.

This insect may be found in all parts of England : some of those in my own collection were taken near Oxford, and the others in Wiltshire, on the Downs. The end of May and beginning of August are the times when it is in best condition, and at the latter season it may often be seen lying dead in roads or pathways. Like the Dor Beetle, it is a burrower, and has been taken while making its tunnel in sand.

There is a large family of small Beetles which must not be passed over without a brief notice. This is known by the name of Aphodiidse, a name formed from two Grreek words which refer to the habits of the different species, which are always to be found m cowdung. They are rather oblong and cylindrical in shape, and the elytra cover nearly the whole of the body. Many species are among the commonest of our British insectsj and they must be sought in their accustomed haunts if the beetle-hunter wishes to obtain a good series of specimens A t stick will generaUy suffice to eject them from their hiding- I places, but tne • digger ’ which has been already described is a 1 beneath the surface of the earth. Forty I more effective instrument, as the insects can be dug out of species of their ^ Aphodius are known to entomologists.

The. family of the Lucanidse is represented in England by four genera, but by very few species, only one British species belonging to each genus. This family may at once be known by the club of the antennae, which, though formed of a series of plates, is unlike that of the other LamelUcornes, in that the cannot be folded together, and are arranged so as to plates look as if the club were simply pectinated. The claws have a

slender secondary claw inside them. Besides these exvery ternal modifications of structure, the internal anatomy of the Lucanidae differs from that of the other LamelUcornes, the system being distributed in a manner which at present nervous is not known in any of the LamelUcornes which have been dissected. In the males the mandibles are enormously developed, and, in consequence of these distinctions, many have thought that the Lucanidae ought not to entomologists the LamelUcornes, but to be formed into a group belong to The name of Pectinicornes, or ‘combed by themselves. has been suggested as an appropriate title. As to antennae,’ alteration, Mr. Eye very judiciously remarks, this proposed a change ought not to be made until all the known that such have been dissected, and their nervous system LamelUcornes exanained. is distinguished by the flattened body,

The genus Lucanus four-jointed club of the antennae, the apparently pectinated jaws of the male, which are often haff as and the enormous head, thorax, and body together. Our only British long as the is the well-known Stag Beetle {Lucanus cervus), whmh species name from the jaws of the male, which derives its popular Uke the horns of a stag. In some parts of the look somewhat of Hokn-bug. A figure of this country it goes by the name on Plate V. Fig. 4, the Beetle being reprefine insect is shown sented in the act of flying. British Beetles, as it sometimes

This is the largest of the three inches. The ^ize, however, is attains a length of nearly as some males are barely half that length, extremely variable, small and weak. These are and have their jaws comparatively males, their inferiority being generally called undeveloped of food while in the larval state. Lest probably due to a want race of Stag Beetles should Lwever, a small and degenerate always fight for possession of the be perpetuated, the males

females, and the consequence is, that none but the largest and strongest individuals have a chance of obtaining a mate.

The head and thorax of the Stag Beetle are black, profusely punctured. The elytra are deep-chestnut, becoming black on the margins, and at first sight appear to be quite smooth, but are, in reality, covered with the finest imaginable punctures. The jaws are of the same colour as the elytra, and the legs are black. The female is shaped like the male, with the exception of the jaws, which are small, cmwed, and sharply pointed. The head, too, is smaller than that of the male, because the muscles attached to the jaws are comparatively small. The peculiar maxilljE, with their hairy inner lobes, can be seen on page 9, Fig. 46. When in their places, these lobes are close together, and look like a yellow tongue.

This Beetle is in some parts of England very common, and in others not only rare, but absolutely wanting. I hunted insects industriously at Oxford for a series of years, and not only never saw a living Stag Beetle within many miles of that city, but never knew that a specimen had been taken in that locality. There is no apparent reason why it should find that Oxford does not suit it, for the same trees flourish there as they do in Kent, where it is one of the commonest of the Beetle tribe, and the same water that flows past Oxford rolls through the Thames valley of Kent. Whatever may be the reason, the fact exists ; and I well remember my gratification and astomshment when I first saw the Stag Beetles flying about nearly as plentifully as Cockchafers or Dor Beetles.

The larva of this insect somewhat resembles that of the Eose Beetle, and lives in rotten wood. I have tried to rear this larva, but unsuccessfully, as the creature would die before It bad become full-fed. Indeed, I never saw the larva even attempt to eat, though I kept it in a mass of the same wood in which It was living when captured. One specimen, however which IS now alive on my desk, did eat the white paper fining of the box ; but it entirely, refused the decayed wood, though I repeatedly placed scraps of its natural food within its jaws One of these larvae is represented on Plate V. Fig. 5, as it appears in Its home. The oak supplies its favourite food, but it also fives iu the willow ; and, according to some entomologists, the willow-fed specimens are smaller than those which five in the oak. These

larvae often do very great harm, their powerful jaws enabling them to eat into the living as well as the dead wood, and into the roots themselves. It remains in the larval state for at least four, and perhaps as much as six years, and when it is about to become a pupa, makes for itself a cocoon out of the wood-chips with which it is surrounded.

The jaws of the male are qiiite as formidable weapons as they appear to be, the muscles which close them being very powerful, and their sharp and strong teeth inflicting a severe bite. Mr. Curtis mentions that the jaws retain the power of biting long after the head has been separated from the body, and that in one case when a severed head of a Stag Beetle was taken home in the evening, it retained on the following morning power to pinch the finger. Still, severe as is the sufficient the male Stag Beetle, that of the other sex is still more bite of severe, the points of the strong, sharp, curved jaws being made to meet in the flesh. sight it would appear that the insect must be a car-

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