322 MOTIONS OF INSECTS. 



for both this and C. goettingensis will walk upon the 

 hand with their back downwards, and it then requires a 

 rather strong pull to disengage them from their station. 

 — The whole tribe of weevils {Curcidionidce) are also 

 furnished with these cushions, but not always upon all 

 their joints, some having them only at their apex; and 

 the palm-weevil (Calandra Palmarum^ F.) at the ex- 

 tremity solely of the last joint but one. — Those bril- 

 liant beetles the Buprestes have also these cushions, as 

 have likewise the numerous tribes of capricorn-beetles 

 {Cerambi/cidcc). The larvae of these being timber- 

 borers, the parent insect is probably thus enabled io 

 adhere to this substance whilst it deposits its eggs. In- 

 deed in some species of the former genus the cushions 

 wear the appearance of suckers. — While the linear 

 species of Helopt^ F. are without them, they clothe all 

 the tarsi of //. ceneiis. In two other genera of the same 

 order, Silpha and Cicindela, the anterior tarsi of the 

 males are furnished with them ; in these therefore they 

 may be regarded, like the suckers of the larger water- 

 beetles (Dt/tisci)f as given for sexual purposes. The 

 three first joints of the anterior tarsi of many of the 

 larger rove-beetles (Staphj/linus, L.) are dilated so as 

 to form, as in the last-mentioned ineects, an orbicular 

 patella, but covered by cushions. Since in them this 

 i8 not peculiar to the males, it is probably given that 

 they may be able to support their long bodies when 

 climbing. 



But the most remarkable class of climbers consists of 

 those that are furnished with an apparatus by which 

 they can form a vacuum, so as to adhere to the plane 

 on which they are moving by atmospheric pressure. 



