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CHAPTER V. 

 COLEOPTERA. 



{Beetles.) 



Brief Synopsis of Characters of the Order. 



The Coleoptera or beetles are insects furnished with a biting mouth, the 

 biting jaws being known as mandibles; the lower lip is divided medianly. 



The insects appear to be 

 hard, horny, scale-like 

 closely together down the 

 membranous wings are 

 distinguished from other 

 of the insect is covered with 

 this enclosing the insect as 



Fig. 28.— Longicorn beetle {Batocera). Dorsal view with wings out- 

 spread. 7', vertex ; 0, occiput ; a^ to a", joints of antennae ; n^ '^ * 

 prothorax, mesothorax, metathorax ; tV, elytron ; 2c, wing ; sc, 

 scutellum ; i, 2 to 7, abdominal segments ; py, pygidium. 



wingless, the back being covered by 

 structures termed the elytra, which fit 

 centre. Beneath these elytra a pair of 

 usually present. Beetles are readily 

 insects owing to the fact that the whole 

 a hard horny substance known as chitin, 

 it were in armour. The general shape 

 is spherical, flat 

 or otherwise, to 

 long linear. 



On the head 

 the mandibles 

 are usually well 

 developed ; the 

 eyes are com- 

 pound, and often 

 divided into two 

 parts, or they may 

 be reniform in 

 shape ; the anten- 

 nae are eleven (or 

 fewer) or twelve 

 jointed, the joints 

 varying in shape 

 and length. At 

 times, as in the 

 Buprestidae, the 

 faces of the 

 joints may be 

 set with porifer- 

 ous pits. The 

 antennae are 

 of importance in 

 the classifica- 

 tion of the order, 

 as are also the 



