insects: their feet. 117 



similar appendages. I shall now show you the fore-foot 

 of a well-known insect, called by children the Bloody-nose 

 Beetle (Timarcha tenebricosa), a heavy-bodied fellow, of a 

 blue-black colour, abundant in spring and summer on 

 hedge-banks. You have doubtless often observed it, and 

 have been amused, perhaps, at seeing the drop of clear 

 scarlet fluid which exudes from its mouth when touched. 



The feet in this species are broad and well developed. 

 You may see with the naked eye, on turning it up, that 

 its dilated joints are covered on the under surface with a 

 velvety cushion of a rusty -brown colour; and here, under 

 a low power of the microscope with the Lieberkiihn, you 

 can determine the nature of the velvet. 



The foot, or tarsus, as it is technically called, is com- 

 posed of four very distinct pieces ; of which the first is 

 semicircular, the second crescent-shaped, the third heart- 

 shaped, and the fourth nearly oval. The last is rounded 

 on all sides, has no cushioned sole, and carries two stout 

 hooks. The first three are flat, or even hollowed beneath 

 into soles, something like the hoof of a horse ; and the 

 whole interior bristles with close-set minute points, the 

 tips of which terminate at the same level, and form a 

 velvety surface. Now, these points are the whitish bulbous 

 extremities exactly answerable to those on the palms of 

 the fly, and doubtless they answer the very same purpose. 

 Only here they are set in far closer array, and are a 

 hundred times more numerous; whence we may reason- 

 ably presume a higher power of adhesion to be possessed 

 by the beetle. The structure is best seen in the male, 

 which may be distinguished by its smaller dimensions, 

 and by its broader feet. 



A still better example of a sucking foot is this of the 

 Dyticus marginalis. It is the great flat oval beetle, which 

 i-< fond of coming up to the surface of ponds, and hanging 

 there by the tail with its pair of hind legs stuck out on 

 each side at right angles ; the redoubtable monster which 



