. St. Nicholas [serial]. urprised me, but was accompanied with a littlepuff of blue smoke. I had read about these beetles,and now I was so pleased and excited over actually find-ing some that I quickly gathered them into my cyanide-jar, and went rushing over the hill-crest, wildly shout-ing to the others, I have seen the bombardiers! Ihave seen the bombardiers! At first this considerably alarmed them, till I showed them the beetles. Ihave since learned that the bombardier-beetles be-long to the genus Brachymus, which contains twenty-sixspecies widely distributed over the United States, vary-in
. St. Nicholas [serial]. urprised me, but was accompanied with a littlepuff of blue smoke. I had read about these beetles,and now I was so pleased and excited over actually find-ing some that I quickly gathered them into my cyanide-jar, and went rushing over the hill-crest, wildly shout-ing to the others, I have seen the bombardiers! Ihave seen the bombardiers! At first this considerably alarmed them, till I showed them the beetles. Ihave since learned that the bombardier-beetles be-long to the genus Brachymus, which contains twenty-sixspecies widely distributed over the United States, vary-ing in size but almost alike in color, wing-covers blue,the rest reddish brown. The genus Galerita containsbeetles of the same shape and color, but much larger(three fourths of an inch or more in length, whereasbombardier-beetles are never much over one half-inch),and they are much more common here in of the genus Lebia resemble bombardier-beetles,but have more shiny wing-covers. These three genera mm-. MiM^:l, ffi mm- < ,2* THE BOIUBAKDIEk-BEETLE. may thus be roughly distinguished, and there are noother beetles in the United States which closely resem-ble bombardier-beetles. It is almost impossible, evenfor an experienced entomologist, to tell the species ofbombardier-beetles, so minute are the differences. Sowe young collectors have to be content with labelingthe specimens Brachymus sp. ?, if we want to usethe Latin name at all. They belong to the familyCarabida:. The shooting of the bombardier-beetles is done fordefense, and is probably very effective against smallenemies. It is said that they will shoot as much as adozen times in succession, but I have never been ableto make them shoot more than two or three is also said that when the reservoir which containsthe liquid is opened by dissection, it effervesces andevaporates instantaneously. The beetles are not uncommon in the United States,and I wonder how many times in succession they can bemad
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Keywords: ., bookauthordodgemar, bookcentury1800, bookdecade1870, bookyear1873
