More Beetles 



that owns the premises. The adult fre- 

 quents in summer the prickly heads of the 

 field eringo. To look at her, you would take 

 her for a DIpteron, for a Fly, because of her 

 two big wings uncovered by wing-cases. Ex- 

 amine her more closely and you will see that 

 she carries on her shoulders two small scales, 

 all that remains of the suppressed wing-cases. 

 She is yet another who has not known how 

 or rather has not been able to complete the 

 parts of which she carries these absurd 

 rudiments. 



An entire group, one of the most numer- 

 ous among the Beetles, that of the Staphylini, 

 or Rove-beetles, cuts down its wing-cases to 

 a third or a quarter of the normal dimen- 

 sions. With excessive economy, the insect 

 with the long, wriggling belly makes itself 

 unsightly and goes too scantily clad. 



I might continue for a long time to enu- 

 merate the deformed, the irregular, the ex- 

 ceptional; the "whys" would follow close 

 upon one another and no reply would be 

 forthcoming. Animals are uncommunicative; 

 plants, when cunningly entreated, lend them- 

 selves better to enquiry. Let us consult 

 them on this problem of anomalies; perhaps 

 they will tell us something. 

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