58 INSECTS 



In the order Coleoptcra or beetles we have a very 

 large number of species and a very great diversity of 

 habits. They live under almost every conceivable 

 condition where insect life is possible at all, and there 

 is no organic matter, living or dead, which is not eaten 

 by some Coleopteron in either the adult or larval stage. 

 We may therefore expect to and do find enemies to all 

 sorts of plant life and there is no part, from the tip of 

 the finest rootlet to the topmost leaf, that is exempt. 



Just how it happened that certain types of struct- 

 ure became associated with certain feeding habits 

 makes a very interesting question on which there are 

 widely divergent opinions; but for our purpose we can 

 simply accept the fact that the general life habits of 

 any beetle can be approximately stated from an ex- 

 amination of the feet, the antennae or feelers and the 

 general type of mouth. There are exceptions in every 

 large group as the result of special adaptation, but for 

 general purposes the test answers well. 



We have a large series of species, most of them 

 terrestrial but a few aquatic, in which the antennae 

 are slender, made up of usually eleven joints of similar 

 form, and the feet are 5 -jointed on all legs. All these 

 are predatory in general habits, both as larvae and 

 adults, and none are characteristically enemies of plant 

 life. There are some that eat plants, and a few have 

 caused injury at times; but these are exceptional 

 instances. 



Coming next in the order of series are the Clavicorns 

 in which the antennae are thickened toward the tip so 

 as to form a distinct enlargement or club: the feet, all 

 of them with the same number of joints, though the 

 number may be from three to five, none of them with 

 the third joint lobed. By far the largest part of this 

 series are scavengers, living in fermenting, dry or de- 



