180 THE ENTOMOLOGIST. 



When first emerged the insect walked about for a short time, 

 and then generally crawled under the leaves until it had assumed 

 its normal colouring and was fully able to fly, which happened in 

 from two to three hours. At this time the body was quite black, 

 and the legs and antennse nearly of the same colour. The beetles 

 ate the dead leaves in the box, and were rather lively, seeming to 

 be gregarious, congregating together under the leaves. After 

 keeping them for some time, an unfortunate accident during 

 my absence deprived me of the pleasure of watching their habits 

 further. 



The life of an insect, as we have seen in the later metamor- 

 phoses of a beetle, is one continued series of changes. These 

 are not merely from the larva to the pupa, and from the pupa to 

 the perfect insect,~during which it acquires new organs, — but 

 consist also of repeated sheddings of the skin, which occur at 

 intervals, before the larva has attained its full size. It was at 

 this period that I found the larvae described. 



The question may naturally be asked, why does the insect 

 undergo these metamorphoses or changes ? The answer will come 

 appropriately from the ' Origin of Species,' where the author 

 says ; — " The embryonic state of each species reproduces more 

 or less completely the form and structure of its less modified 

 progenitors"; and Herbert Spencer says: — "Each organism 

 exhibits within a short space of time a series of changes, which, 

 when supposed to occupy a period indefinitely great, and to go on 

 in various ways, instead of one way, gives us a tolerably clear 

 conception of organic evolution in general." 



The present developmental history of a beetle really represents 

 therefore the modifications which the species has undergone in 

 past time ; and as Sir John Lubbock says : — " That the ancestors 

 of beetles, under the influence of varying external conditions and 

 in the lapse of geological ages, should have undergone changes 

 which the individual beetle passes through under our own eyes, 

 and in the space of a few days, is surely no extravagant hypothesis." 



It may be asked, whether, in looking over the records of the 

 past history of the earth, we find anything by which the evolution 

 of a beetle from other forms of life can be inferred ; and here it 

 must be confessed that Pala3ontology does not furnish us with 

 any direct evidence with regard to the evolution of beetles. We 

 must remember, however, that the crust of the earth, within 



