80 NORTH AMERICAN INSECTS. 



maturity, of blossoms, and of fruit. If the merry 

 month of May adorns our woods and meadows with 

 their youthful vegetation, their chirping birds and 

 delicate flowers, so is the beginning of autumn none 

 the less lavish in its golden harvest of grain, its 

 melodious songsters, and its crown of brilliant flowers. 

 There, from the red-leaved bushes, the tall Rud-beckia 

 peeps out its golden head ; here, the blue Vernonias 

 and Liatris mingle with the yellow Helianthus and 

 Coreopsis, forming showy figures upon the green velvet 

 carpet of the field ; while the purple and white Eupa- 

 toriums, blending with the rosy Spireas and crimson 

 Cardinal-flowers, and all, bordered by the variegated 

 Asters and perfumed Golden-rod, form one magic sheet 

 of kaliedoscopic images ! 



It is upon the slender Golden-rod, feasting upon 

 the pollen of its flowers and upon its aromatic leaves, 

 that we see the handsome little Painted Capricorn- 

 beetle. This Insect is little more than half an inch 

 long, and of ' a cylindrical form. Its whole body is 

 black, and looks like velvet. Its head and thorax 

 are crossed with yellow lines, and its wing-covers are 

 marked with lines, triangles, and spots of the same 

 colour. Its antennae are half as long as its body, and 

 its legs of a reddish brown colour. 



Although this Beetle is seeD in the month of 

 September feeding upon the flower-dust of the Golden- 



