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NATURAL HISTORY NOTES ON COLEOPTERA. No. 2
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 31 May 2012
Extract
Harpalus viduus Lec. The type of this species was taken at Rock Island, Illinois. It must be somewhat rare, as it does not appear in any local catalogue nor exchange list under my notice. Here it is found in one place only, and that in some abundance—on the side of a high hill in its primitive state, possessed of a warm, friable, vegetable soil, with a scanty vegetation, and flat stones on the surface. The females have the elytra opaque, but not pubescent, as one of my correspondents claims they should be to meet the description of Dr. Leconte—“sericeo-opaca,” which here evidently means opaque with a silky lustre. The males are moderately shining. The beetle makes its appearance during September and October, though few of them mature till the following spring, remaining under the shelter of the stones, where from one to half a dozen are often associated. At first the beetles are of a pale color, the elytra gradually changing to black; but the head and thorax mostly remain red till winter. In the spring they are shining bIack, and are only then fit to be placed in a collection. In the great struggle for “survival of the fittest” the chances seem to be against this insect.
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