CHAPTER VI 



THE BEETLES: COLEOPTERA 



Now fades the glimmering landscape on the sight, 



And all the air a solemn stillness holds ; 

 Save where the beetle wheels his droning flight, 



And drowsy tinklings lull the distant folds. 



Gray, Elegy in a Country Churchyard 



More than two thirds of all the known insects are beetles. 

 Obviously no large proportion of these can be included in 

 an introduction to Zoology. The following are a few of the 

 most important. 



June Beetles or May Beetles. During the warm evenings 

 of summer there is no more conspicuous insect than the big, 

 blundering, brown beetles (Fig. 27) that swarm about street 

 lamps and batter against our window screens. The hard 

 outer wings, or elytra, fit so perfectly over the back that the 

 June beetle (Phylloph'aga) seems to be dressed in a complete 

 suit of armor. These elytra meet in a perfectly straight line 

 down the middle of the back. The wings actually used 

 in flying are delicate and membranous. They are so much 

 longer than the elytra that even when the wings are brought 

 into the resting position their tips may stick out untidily 

 from under the elytra until the beetle tucks the ends in 

 place by folding the tips back. Like the grasshopper's the 

 body of the beetle is divided into three regions : the head, 

 thorax, and abdomen. The wings cover the back and sides 

 of the abdomen so completely that the somites are visible 

 only from the ventral surface. 



The antennae are peculiarly constructed. Instead of end- 

 ing in a single thread-like tip, which usually indicates only 



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