Insects abroad : being a popular account of foreign insects, their structure, habits, and transformations . OAD. patches under the head. The fore-legs are exceedingly powerful,and the tibia is flat, hollowed, armed with two very bold teeth mi the outside, and its under surface is covered with a vastnumber of slightly curved ridges, running- parallel to eachother, and diagonally across the limb. The tarsus is so smallthat hardly anyone except an entomologist would notice it. This species lives underground, at the bottom of very deepburrows, so that it would easily escape observation, even inloc
Insects abroad : being a popular account of foreign insects, their structure, habits, and transformations . OAD. patches under the head. The fore-legs are exceedingly powerful,and the tibia is flat, hollowed, armed with two very bold teeth mi the outside, and its under surface is covered with a vastnumber of slightly curved ridges, running- parallel to eachother, and diagonally across the limb. The tarsus is so smallthat hardly anyone except an entomologist would notice it. This species lives underground, at the bottom of very deepburrows, so that it would easily escape observation, even inlocalities where it was plentiful. As, however, like our ownspecies, it lives under patches of cowdung, an entomologist canmostly hit upon its dwelling-place. It possesses large andpowerful wings, and when it chooses to use them, which appearsseldom to be the case, it makes a loud humming noise. Pro-bably it flies more by night than by day, and so its llightescapes observation. 1 have chosen the splendid insect which is here figured, notonly because it is the finest example of its genus, but because it is. - Via 05 i• « us luncifer.(Purple and green, with violet elytra ) also the rarest, the British Museum only possessing a single speci-men, which was brought by Mr. Bates from Paraxon the Amazon River. The length of the specimen is an inch and three- HABITS OF THE PHANCEUS. 121 quarters, the thickness of the body is an inch, and the horn ofthe head is one inch and a third in length. The colouring of this Beetle is singularly beautiful, and notvery easy to describe. The head and greater part of the hornare deep purple, shot with green, or vice versa, just as the lighthappens to fall on it; the tip of the horn being black. Thesquare, flat plate at the hinder portion of the thorax is deeppurple, and is thickly and boldly punctured. The strangelycurved elytra are rich violet in colour, are boldly ridged, andbetween the ridges their surface is deeply granulated. The eyesare
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Keywords: ., bookcentury1800, bookdecade1880, booksubjectinsects, bookyear1883
