Insects abroad : being a popular account of foreign insects, their structure, habits, and transformations . the elytra are nearly hexagonal,and are set very closely together. As in Zopherus Brcmii,the knobs are black and the flat surface white, so that thesurface of the elytra looks something like a white net with anebony ball in every mesh. The present species is a native ofCalifornia. N 178 INS kits ABROAD. MOST of the Beetles which we are now examining are slow,sluggish, and dull black, or at all events sombre in hue, and soconstant a character is this dulness that some systematic ento-molo
Insects abroad : being a popular account of foreign insects, their structure, habits, and transformations . the elytra are nearly hexagonal,and are set very closely together. As in Zopherus Brcmii,the knobs are black and the flat surface white, so that thesurface of the elytra looks something like a white net with anebony ball in every mesh. The present species is a native ofCalifornia. N 178 INS kits ABROAD. MOST of the Beetles which we are now examining are slow,sluggish, and dull black, or at all events sombre in hue, and soconstant a character is this dulness that some systematic ento-mologists have gathered them into a general group under thename of Mdasoma, or black-bodied. These insects are indeedthe typical representatives of the Heteromera; and as some ofthem are of considerable size, the structure of the foot can bearrived at without difficulty. Tin: family of the Blapsidse is familiar to all English entomoi-logists on account of our familiar insect the Cellar Beetle, orChurchyard Beetle {Blcvps macronala), which, as its popularname imports, is to be found in dark and damp Fig. 83.—31apa polychrestos.(Dull black, washed with purple.) All the Blapsidae are so much alike in their habits that thedescription of one species will equally serve for others, no matterwhat may be their country. Of their own will they are neverseen in the daylight, and even in their own familiar darknessthey have no liveliness, but crawl sluggishly about with greatdeliberation, slowly lifting one leg after another, and remindingthe observer of the gait of a With such habits it isevident that they cannot need wings, and accordingly they areentirely without organs of flight, their elytra being so firmlysoldered together that they cannot be separated without injury. These beetles emit an odour which is singularly unpleasant, and so peculiar as almost to baffle description. It is not like that of the larger Rove Hectics, of the Burying Beetles, or the mid Beetles, b
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Keywords: ., bookcentury1800, bookdecade1880, booksubjectinsects, bookyear1883
