ORDER I. BEETLES. 



57 



Cloak-bearing Capricorn. 



is another Beetle of the same family. It is about one inch 

 long, anci of a changeable blue color, 

 except the upper part of the wing- 

 covers, which is of a pale orange 

 color, and gives the animal the ap- 

 pearance of one carrying a cloak 

 across his shoulders. Hence its 

 name. Its antennae are a little lon- 

 ger than half the length of its body. 

 This insect may be found upon the 

 common elder, and its grubs in the 

 stems of the same shrub. 



The largest Capricorn of the 

 southern parts of North America is the Stag Beetle Capri 

 corn (Prionus cervicornis), whicli is three inches and a half 

 long, of a brown color, and has jaws like a Stag Beetle, one 

 inch long. 



But the handsomest of all is the Long-armed Capricorn 

 {Lamia longimana) of South America. It measures two and 

 a half inches in length, and one inch in breadth. Its fore^ 

 legs are five inches long. Its head, thorax, and wing-covers 

 are dark olive-green, striped with red, yellow, and white in 

 a very singular manner, and resembling hieroglyphics. 



Snout Beetles (Curculiones). 



The Snout Beetles occupy the lowest rank among Cole- 

 opterous Insects, partly on account of their head, which is 

 prolongated into a bill-like pointed snout, with a very small 

 mouth at the end, and two triangular antennae, and partly 

 on account of their larva3, which are maggots, like those 

 of flies, havino; no legs. The female of these insects bores 

 holes with her pointed mouth in the vegetable body in 

 which she deposits her eggs, and the maggots issuing from 

 them enter the stems of annual and perennial plants, de- 

 vouring all their internal substance, and destroying whole 

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