Publisher's Synopsis
This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can usually download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1873 edition. Excerpt: ... of scorpion which it does not now possess. But had such been the case, the different conditions to which they must have been subjected would in all probability have produced a variety, and ultimately resulted in the formation of a new species. A kind of beetle of the genus Tetracha, inhabiting tropical America, presents a most remarkable example of how individuals of a species, having accidentally strayed or been transported to a neighbouring territory, may, in a comparatively short space of time, through complete isolation and very altered conditions, be changed in form, colour, and mode of life, and thus become an entirely new species. The mode of life of this genus is identical with that of the genus Megacephala of the Old World, so well known to all entomologists, of which the American genus Tetracha, properly speaking, forms a sub-genus. Tetracha Carolina, L., and T. geniculata, Chev., pursue the same gregarious mode of life as the Asiatic Megacephala euphratica; both are very numerous in the dampest parts of sandy river banks, and both require a damp climate. Even in the night, when they conceal themselves under stones or fallen trunks, they confine themselves to places saturated with water, and are but rarely to be met with inland. The rivers of Venezuela and of the western part of Central America, where the last-mentioned species abounds, flow partly through savannahs, where they have undermined the loose tufaceous soil, forming deep beds with high precipitous banks. Individuals of this species from the highlands, through which the river passes, have arrived, by accident or otherwise, at the level unwatered soil of the savannah, and cannot return without precipitating themselves down the perpendicular bank; the consequence has...
