2l6 



The Orders of Insects 



are relatively larger in the males than in the females. The pro- 

 notum, in this family, especially in the males, is often ornamented 

 with conspicuous and curiously shaped horns whose purpose is 

 unknown. In structural detail and habits the members of this 

 family differ widely among themselves. Some are dung-feeders 

 and certain foreign species roll together balls of dung wherein 

 they lay their eggs, thus providing food for their grubs. Very 

 many feed on plants, the beetles eating leaves, and the grubs roots. 

 The grubs are white and fleshy, usually bent into a semicircle ; the 

 large head has powerful mandibles and no ocelli ; the body-segments 

 are often transversely wrinkled, and the hindmost segment is often 



Fig. 119. — a. Chafer, Allorhina nitida (Linn.), North America, b. 

 larva; c. pupa in cell; d. outside of cell. Natural size. From 

 Howard, Bull. 10 (n.s.) Div. Ent. U.S. Dept. Agr. 



greatly swollen. Some of the Scarab^idx are dull black — the dung- 

 beetles for example ; while others are of bright metallic hues (fig. 

 119). The family ranges all over the world, but is most abundant 

 in tropical countries. 



Buprestidae. — The Buprestlda are a family of large or moderate- 

 sized beetles. The somewhat short, eleven-segmented feelers are 

 saw-like, owing to a distal enlargement of each segment. The 

 head is withdrawn, as far as the large elliptical eyes, beneath the 

 pronotum, whose hinder corners are not produced ; the prosternum 

 is drawn out behind into a spine which fits into a cavity in the meso- 



