OF THE STATE ENTOMOLOGIST. H 



there are numerous species not possessing five joints to the tarsi be- 

 longing to the first section ; and lor practical purposes beetles may be 

 very well arranged according to habit. We thus get, 1st, the Adephaga, 

 or carnivorous species, including all those which prey on other living 

 insects, and to which, following Mr. Walsh, I have, for obvious reasons, 

 applied the suggestive term "Cannibal"; 2d, the Necropiiaga, com- 

 prising those which feed on carrion, dung, fungi and decaying vegeta- 

 tion; 3d, the PiiYTOPHAGA, embracing all those feeding on living vege- 

 tation. This arrangement is by no means perfect, for there are beetles 

 which are carnivorous in the larva and herbivorous in the imago 

 state; while some of the NeoropKaga are actually parasitic. Yet, it 

 is not more artificial than others which have been proposed. The 

 carnivorous species, broadly speaking, are Pentamerous, the only 

 striking exception being the Goccinellidm (Lady-birds), which are 

 Pseudo-trimerous. The carrion-feeders are also Pentamerous; but 

 vegetable-feeders are found in all the tarsal divisions, though the 

 Pseudo-tetramera are the more essentially herbivorous, and conse- 

 quently the most injurious. 



3 — Lepidoptera {Xt-tq^ a scale; -r,pa^ 

 wings). Butterflies and Moths, or Scaly- 

 winged Insects. Characterized by having 

 four branching-veined, membranous wings, 

 ,,,^^^ ^ ^.^^^. each more or less densely covered on both 

 ^^^ftgr ^ ^^;^?^ sides with minute imbricated scales which 



DEiopEA ,3Ei.LA. ^j.^ ^ttached by a stalk, but which easily 



rub off, and appear to the unaided eye like minute particles of glis- 

 tening dust or powder. Transformations complete. (Fig. 4.) 



Next to the ColeojJtera, the Lepido2)tera are, perhaps, most famil- 

 iar to the popular mind. Every one admires the beauty of these frail 

 creatures, dressed in every conceivable pattern, and adorned with 

 every conceivable color, so as to rival the delicate hues of the rain- 

 bow, and eclipse the most fantastic and elaborate designs of man 

 When magnified, the scales, to which this beauty of patt'ern and col- 

 oring is entirely due, present all manner of shapes, according to the 

 particular species or the particular part of the individual from which 

 they are taken. According to Lewenhoeck, there are 400,000 of these 

 scales on the wing of the common silk-worm. 



The transformations of these insects are complete, and the changes 

 are usually so sudden and striking, as to have excited the wonder and 

 admiration of observers from earliest times. 



The more common form of the larva is exampled in the ordinary 

 caterpillar — a cylindrical worm with a head, twelve joints and a sub- 

 joint; SIX thoracic or true legs, four abdominal and two anal prolegs. 

 But there is a great variety of these larvae, some having no legs what- 

 ever, some having only the jointed legs, and others having either 



