106 FIEST LESSONS IN ZOOLOGY. 



Walking, and it would be worth while to watch a live beetle 

 when in motion. It will be seen that, like all other insects, 

 it raises each leg alternately with its fellow. Watch also 

 the movements of the antennae and mouth-feelers (palpi), 

 how they feel and survey the ground over which the beetle 

 passes. While the head is distinct from the thorax, the lat- 

 ter is divided into two distinct parts. The prothorax is 

 separated from the rest of the thorax, and forms a solid 

 shield, while the two wing-bearing segments are closely 

 united, and are concealed by the wing-covers, when the 

 beetle is not on the wing. 



Beetles differ from the grasshoppers and all other insects 

 in the fore-wings, which are thick and solid, and serve as 

 sheaths to protect the body: hence their name, 

 elytra, given to the fore-wings (Fig. 114, d, m). 

 The hind-wings do all the work during flight, 

 and at rest they are folded out of sight under 

 the fore-wings or elytra. The different parts 

 of the beetle may be examined with the aid of 

 Fig. 114. 



The antennas of beetles are of various shapes 

 and functions. If the jaws and other parts of 

 the mouth be dissected out, and for this purpose 

 a large ground-beetle or tiger-beetle is best, 

 they will be found to closely resemble those of the locust. 

 The legs are the same, but there are usually five joints to 

 the feet, though there are many beetles with but two toe- 

 joints. 



A young beetle is called a "grub." If we place a com- 

 mon "white grub" (Fig. 115) by the side of a May-beetle, 

 we shall see how unlike the child is to the parent, and how 

 great is the change from the grub to the beetle. The series 

 of changes or transformations is called a metamorphosis. 



The " white worm" or grub, as everybody knows who 

 has dug in a garden, is turned up with the spade early in the 

 spring. It is as thick as one's little finger; soft and fleshy, 

 with a dark honey-yellow head, while the rest of the body 



