COLEOPTEllA. 103 



numbers. Some of the beetles in these two ^oups resemble 

 each other closely in their forms and habits. The resemblance, 

 between the slender cylindrical Saperdas and some of the 

 cylindrical Buprestians belonoinir to the genus Ag-riliis, is 

 indeed very remarkable, and cannot fail to strike a common 

 observer. Their larva) also are not only very similar in their 

 forms, but they have the same habits ; living in the centre of 

 stems, and devouring the pith. 



The insects, that have passed under consideration in the 

 foregoing part of this treatise, spend by far the greater portion 

 of their lives, namely, that wherein they are larvse only, in 

 obscurity, buried in the ground, or concealed within the roots, 

 the stems, or the seeds of plants, where they perform their 

 appointed tasks unnoticed and unknown. Thus the work of 

 destruction goes secretly and silently on, till it becomes mani- 

 fest by its melancholy consequences ; and too late we discover 

 the hidden foes that have disappointed the hopes of the hus- 

 bandman, and ruined those spontaneous productions of the 

 soil that constitute so important a som-ce of our comfort and 

 prosperity. 



There still remain several groups of beetles to be described, 

 consisting almost entirely of insects that spend the whole, or 

 the principal part, of their lives upon the leaves of plants, and 

 which, as they derive their nourishment, both in the larva and 

 adult states, from leaves alone, may be called leaf-beetles, or, 

 as they have recently been named, phyllophagous, that is leaf- 

 eating insects. When, as in certain seasons, they appear in 

 considerable numbers, they do not a little injury to vegetation, 

 and, being generally exposed to view on the leaves that they 

 devour, they soon attract attention. But the power possessed 

 by most plants of renewing their foliage, enables them soon to 

 recover from the attacks of these devourers; and the injury 

 sustained, unless often repeated, is rarely attended by the 

 ruinous consequences that follow the hidden and unsuspected 

 ravages of those insects that sap vegetation in its most vital 

 parts. Moreover, the leaf-eaters are more within our reach, 

 and it is not so difficult to destroy them, and protect plants 

 from then- depredations. The leaf-beetles are generally distin- 



