COLEOPTERA. 33' 



Chevrolat. Coleopteres du Mexique. Strasbourg, 1 834. 12mo. in parts. 



Kluff. Entomologia' Brasilise Specimen, and Specimen alterum (in Nova Acta 



Nature Curios, vol. x. and xii. ). 

 l^crti/. Delect. An. Articul. Brasiliae. fol. Munich, 1 830. 



Sahlberg. Periculi Entomologici (chiefly Brazilian Coleoptera). 4 pi. 1823. 8vo. 

 Lacordaire. Observations on the Habits of the Beetles of Brazil (in Annales des 



Sci. Nat. for 1830, and in Nouv. Ann. du Museum). 



Order COLEOPTERA Aristotle. 



Char. Anterior wings (elytra) horny or leathery, concealing the 

 posterior wings when unemployed, horizontal, united down the 

 back by a straight suture. 



Posterior wings membranous, longitudinally and transversely 

 folded when unemployed. 



Mouth with transversely moveable jaws. 

 Pupa incomplete.* 

 This order comprises the extensive tribes of beetles, and, in respect 

 to the size of some of these insects, or the number of individual species, 

 must be regarded as occupying the foremost rank amongst insects. 

 From our earliest childhood, when, at school, we learned the cruel trick 

 of putting a pin through the tail of a Cockchafer to see it "spin;" or 

 caught the pretty ladybirds, and watched them take their flight from 

 our hand, exclaiming, in the words of the childish couplet — 



" Ladybird, ladybird, prythee begone ; 



Thy house is on fire, and thy children at home," 



we have been familiarized with the leading character of this order of 

 insects, derived from the structure of the wings and elytra, from 

 whence, indeed, the name of the order, signifying " wings in a case," 

 was given to them by Aristotle. In the earlier editions of the Sys- 

 tema NaturcB it was even employed as its sole characteristic ; so that 

 the Grasshoppers, Cockroaches, and Earwigs were included in it ; and, 



* It has been usual to apply the character of the pupa to designate the peculiar 

 nature of the metamorphosis in general. This is, however, very incorrect ; since the 

 Coleoptera are thereby defined to have an incomplete metamorphosis, whereas their 

 metamorphoses are complete, in the ordinary acceptation of the word, the pupa 

 being on the contrary incomplete. Moreover, Linna?us applied this and other 

 similar terms to the jnipa, and not to the metamorphosis ; the confusion originating 

 in their misappropriation by Fabricius. 



