COLEOPTERA. 109 



the grub lives, putting out its head and fore-legs when it wishes to 

 eat or to move. When it is fully grown, it stops up the open end 

 of its case, and changes to a pupa, and afterwards to a beetle 

 within it, and then gnaws a hole through the case, in order to 

 escape. As none of these insects have been observed to do 

 much injury to plants in this country, I shall state nothing more 

 respecting them, than that Clythra dominicana inhabits the su- 

 mach, i . quadriguttata oak-trees, Chlamys gibbosa low whortle- 

 berry bushes, Crypto cephalus luridus the wild indigo-bush, and 

 most of the other species may be found on different kinds of oaks. 



Although the blistering-beetles, or Cantharides (Canthari- 

 did.e), have been enumerated among the insects directly benefi- 

 cial to man, on account of the important use made of them in 

 medical practice, yet it must be admitted that they are often very 

 injurious to vegetation. The green Cantharides, or Spanish-flies, 

 as they are commonly called, are found in the South of Europe, 

 and particularly in Spain and Italy, where they are collected in 

 great quantities for exportation. In these countries they some- 

 times appear in immense swarms, on the privet, lilac, and ash ; so 

 that the limbs of these plants bend under their weight, and are en- 

 tirely stripped of their foliage by these leaf-eating beetles. In 

 like manner our native Cantharides devour the leaves of plants, 

 and sometimes prove very destructive to them. 



Latreille, and other naturalists, who follow his system, arrange 

 these insects between the beetles having five-jointed feet, and 

 those which have only four joints in the same members. As they 

 were omitted in the place assigned to them by these naturalists, 

 they may, without impropriety, come under consideration at the 

 end of the leaf-eating beetles, since, according to Mr. Kirby, and 

 some others, they seem to lead to the insects in the order Orthop- 

 tera, which follows. The Cantharides are distinguished from all 

 the preceding insects by their feet, the hindmost pair of which 

 have only four joints, while the first and middle pairs are five- 

 jointed. In this respect they agree with many other beetles, such 

 as clocks or darkling-beetles, meal-beetles, some of the mush- 



