10 BEETLES. 



or of all the tarsi, is clothed with small pulvilli, looking like velvet, 

 which arc used almost like sucking disks to enable its owner to 

 adhere to smooth surfaces. 



The beetles undergo a complete metamorphosis. The eggs, 

 usually soft, white or colored, are deposited by the mother upon 

 or near the food required by the young. These eggs soon hatch 

 into larvae, which are commonly called "grubs," as, for instance, 

 the well-known, "white grub." Other larvae are covered with a 

 thick integument, as the young of our common click-beetles, best 

 known by the name "wire-worms." Most of the larvse are soft and 

 clumsy looking objects, with darker and horny heads, and three 

 pairs of rather awkward looking, sprawling legs on the first three 

 segments of the body, the thoracic segments. No false legs, as we 

 have them in the caterpillars of the butterflies and moths, are 

 found, but in many cases there is a sort of pro-leg on the last joint 

 of the body. The name pro-leg is rather poorly chosen for an 

 organ found in such a position. Sometimes the larvae possess 

 one or two rows of fleshy projections or tubercles along the sides, 

 or on the upper or under surface, by means of which they can 

 move in tunnels in the ground or elsewhere. 



The )arva?t of aquatic beetles possess numerous oar-like or- 

 gans along their sides, which assist them in swimming about. But 

 all larvae of beetles which live enclosed in wood or fruit, upon 

 which they feed, have no legs at all, simply because being sur- 

 rounded by plenty, they have no use for them. As a general rule 

 larvse of beetles which have to be active in searching for food, or 

 which have to cling tenaciously to food obtained, whether it con- 

 sists of leaves or living insects, have longer and stronger legs well 

 adapted for such purposes. As all growth of a beetle takes place in 

 the larval stage, the larvse have to eat much, hence are always hun- 

 gry. They have to take food not simply to grow, but also to form 

 and to store up material for the future organs possessed by the 

 adults alone, and not found in the larvse themselves. Such larvae 

 have to throw off their old skin from time to time to enable them 

 to reach their full size, since their skins can not grow. After a 

 number of such changes or molts, the greedy grub has reached 

 its full size, and is then filled with a large amount of fatty ma- 

 terial, a store of surplus food. It now changes to a pupa. This 



