Chap. 34.] THE BEETLE. 33 



tries, or in cool and shady thickets. They will take to some 

 places much more readily than others. In the district of Miletus 

 they are only to be found in some few spots ; and in Cephal- 

 lenia, there is a river which runs through the country, on one 

 side of which they are not to be found, while on the other 

 they exist in vast numbers. In the territory of Ilhegium, 

 again, none of the grasshoppers have any note, while be- 

 yond the river, in the territory of Locri, 8 they sing aloud. 

 Their wings are formed similarly to those of bees, but are 

 larger, in proportion to the body. 



CHAP. 33. (28.) — THE WINGS OF INSECTS. 9 



There are some insects which have two wings, flies, for 

 instance ; others, again, have four, like the bee. The wings 

 of the grasshopper are membranous. Those insects which are 

 armed with a sting in the abdomen, have four wings. None 

 of those which have a sting in the mouth, have more than 

 two wings. The former have received the sting for the pur- 

 pose of defending themselves, the latter for the supplying of 

 their wants. If pulled from off the body, the wings of an 

 insect will not grow again ; no insect which has a sting in- 

 serted in its body, has two wings only. 



CHAP. 34. THE BEETLE. THE GLOW-WOKM. OTHEE KINDS OF 



BEETLES. 



Some insects, for the preservation of their wings, are covered 

 with a crust ; 10 the beetle, for instance, the wing of which is 

 peculiarly fine and frail. To these insects a sting has been 

 denied by Nature ; but in one large kind 11 we find horns of a 

 remarkable length, two-pronged at the extremities, and forming 

 pincers, which the animal closes when it is its intention to 



8 The river Csecina. See B. iii. c. 15. This river is by Strabo, B. vi. 

 c. 260, called the Alex. JElian has the story that the Locrian grasshop- 

 pers become silent in the territory of Rhegium, and those of Rhegium m 

 the territory of Locri, thereby implying that they each have a note in its 

 own respective country. 



9 Cuvier says that the observations in this Chapter, derived from Aris- 

 totle, are remarkable for their exactness, and show that that philosopher 

 had studied insects with the greatest attention. 



10 Or sheath ; the Coleoptera of the naturalists. 



11 The flying stag-beetle, the Lucanus cervus of Linnaeus. 



VOL. III. I> 



