234 Bugs, Butterflies, and Beetles 



THE GOLDSMITH BEETLE 



In the swinging drawer of my easel, Jimid paint 

 brushes and crow-quill pens, lead pencils, crayons, 

 scales, dividers and whetstones, there lies a poor 

 crippled beetle. It is seven-eighths of an inch 

 in length with wing covers of a light lemon yellow 

 color and a chest of red gold with a glittering sheen, 

 while underneath it is a metallic-green color coated 

 with white wool. Alas ! it has no legs ! Something 

 happened to it before it was picked 

 up in the front yard and brought into 

 the studio. It evidently had been 

 out all night and met with trouble. 

 Nothing but the sockets mark the 

 places where legs once grew; one side 

 £J4 -^ of its face is damaged and yet this 

 poor cripple, armless and legless, manages to creep 

 slowly over a piece of rough paper, or in the bot- 

 tom of the drawer. Just how it moves its body I 

 am unable to state. 



The goldsmith beetle (Fig. 214) is a very pretty 

 insect. In its baby state it is accused of injm-ing 

 the roots of the strawberry vine ; they also say that 

 it injures shade trees and orchards, but personally J 



