59 



BENEFICIAL IKSECTS. 



By the Eev. C. J. S. BEinuNE, M. A. 



Introductory (Gemral Account oj Insects). 



1. Tiger Beetles (Cicindelidce). 



2. Carnivorous Ground Beetles {Carabidce) . 



3. Water Beetles {Dytimdae, Gyrinidoe etc). 



4. Carrion Beetles {Silphida;). 



5. Scavenger Beetles (Staphylinida). 



G. Dung Beetles (Scarabwidce dec.) 



1. Luminous Insects (Lampyridoi). 



8. Lady Birds {Coccinellidm) . 



Introductory. 



Hitherto, in our Annual Reports, we have devoted ourselves to the consideration of 

 those numerous species of insects that inflict, dyniage upin our crops, fruits and vooctables, 

 while we have only incidentally drawn attention to those other species that are useful to us as 

 destroyers of their noxious fellows. We now propose to treat more especially of the latter 

 class — our Insect Friends. We shall include amongst the number of these friends not 

 merely those parasitic tribes whose special duty it is to keep in check the vegetable feeding 

 insects that would otherwi.se sweep everything away before them, but also those various other 

 families that arc directly useful to us irom their products, or indirectly beneficial by acting 

 as scavengers, removing nuisances, fertilizing plants, and performing other valuable offices. 

 This is, indeed, a vast field of nature — one that we cannot traverse in a few pages or in a 

 limited space of time; we must content ourfelves, then, with taking one portion of it at a 

 time and considering it somewhat in detail, in order to afford information that may be of use 

 to the reader. Where to begin, and what mode of division to select is not an ea.'-y matter to 

 decide ; we think, however, that it will tend to simplicity, if we follow the natural order* 

 into which insects are distributed, taking one at a time and .-^electing for consideration those 

 families or tribes which are especially serviceable in their different ways. AVe shall thus not 

 be confined to one form of service fulfilled by insects, but be presented with a variety in turn, 

 and at the same time we shall be able to touch slightly upon a few of the leading distinctions 

 upon which classification is based. 



In order to render our arrangement intelligible to the ordinary non-Entomological reader 

 it is advisable that we should give a brief account of the principal structural differences upon 

 which the clai^sification into Orders depends. In the first place, then, an Insect as the name 

 implies (Latin : — in and scco I cut), is an animal whose body is divided into segments or 

 rings, which are sometimes — as in wasps and hornets — almost entirely detached from each 

 other, and cause the creature to appear as if cut in two. It thus belongs to that porti< n of 

 the Animal Kingdom called the Artkuhda, themembers of which have their bodies composed 

 of short cylinders or annulalions. jointed or articulated together. Injects may be distinguished 

 from the Articulata by several characteristics. They breathe, fcr instance, not through 

 their mouths, like the l.irjrcr animal.s, nor yet through gills, like fish, but by means of spiracles 

 or breathing holes in their sides, through which the air is drawn in and taken to all parts of 

 the body- This mode of breathing distinguishes true iusecta from many kinds of anima ls 



