220 INSECTS AT HOME. 



The wide and deeply fringed maxilla is worthy of notice. 

 This is the only English species of the genus, the second sup- 

 posed species being nothing more than a variety. 



The family of the Trichopteridse contains a good many 

 species, of which we select one as our example. This is Tri~ 

 chopteryx atoonaria, which is represented on Woodcut XXIV. 

 Fig. 3. 



These are all little Beetles, and, indeed, are the tiniest of the 

 British Coleoptera. Small as they are, they can be easily 

 recognised when examined by the aid of a lens, so bold are 

 the characteristics which mark them. The antennae are long, 

 slender, and beset with long hairs, and having a bold three- 

 jointed club. ■ The wings are very long and narrow, and fringed 

 with hairs, a peculiarity which has gained for them the name 

 of Trichopteryx, or ' hairy wings.' Sometimes the wings are 

 undeveloped, but when they are present they are always fringed 

 with hair. There are other characteristics of the family, but 

 these are sufficient for the recognition of any insect that belongs 

 to it. 



In the typical genus, Trichopteryx, the antennae are about 

 half as long as the body, the head is convex, large and trian- 

 gular, and the wings are furnished at their tips with several 

 bundles of hairs. The present species is one of the largest of 

 the family, and yet it is only one twenty-fourth of an inch in 

 length. Small as it is, by the side of other species of the 

 same genus it is only a giant, most being the thirty-sixth part of 

 an inch in length, while there are some which are barely one- 

 hundredth of an inch long. Some notion of the size of these 

 tiny creatures may be obtained by looking at the little line on 

 the right hand of Fig. 3, and reflecting that they measure just 

 one quarter of that length. 



The little insect which has been chosen as our example of 

 these ' micro-coleoptera,' as the tiny Beetles are called, is tole- 

 rably common, and can be found under heaps of decaying 

 leaf-mould and similar localities. Though the finder may not 

 be able to recognise the precise species when he discovers it, 

 he can at all events see that it is a Beetle, whereas, when he 

 finds the exceedingly minute creatures which have just been 

 mentioned, it is, impossible for him to know, without the aid 



