270 TRANSKORMATIONS OF INSECTS. 
Scarabeide proper, the Geotrupide, the Coprine, and the Pas- 
saling. 
The Cetontide are very beautiful insects, which like the honey 
they obtain from flowers, and which are distinguished from the 
other tribes of the family by their membranous mouthpieces and 
the ten joints which compose the antennze. There are two groups 
of them; and the first, which consists of the Rose Beetle tribe, 
properly so called, is well known by its containing the genus Ce¢onza, 
the commonest species of which, Cefonta aurata, is so abundant 
everywhere in Europe. It is to be seen during the whole of the 
summer, and especially in the months of May and June, flying 
about gardens or resting upon the flowers. It is a beautiful beetle, 
whose golden-green tints and delicate linear and white orna- 
mentation strike everybody with admiration, for when it moves in 
the sunshine, and flies slowly or quickly, the whole of its body 
looks like a mass of glowing gold-like metal. It is very remark- 
able that these rose beetles should not fly like most of the 
others, by extending their elytra at the same time as the mem- 
branous wings, for they only lift up the elytra slightly, and never 
separate them; and this peculiarity is shown in the engraving on 
the previous page. 
On the left-hand side of the engraving one of these beetles may 
be seen flying downwards with its membranous wings extended, 
but the elytra still cover the whole of the body, as they do in the 
insect which may be seen at rest on the upper part of the picture 
and on the right hand. Low down on the right hand is a nymph 
in its cocoon, and around it are larvee of different sizes. 
This beautiful beetle chooses the most elegant and elaborately- 
coloured flowers as its house and food ; it likes to dig deep into the 
hearts of roses and honeysuckles, the petals of which it eats, and, 
moreover, it sucks their honey. The females usually lay their 
eggs in decayed wood at the foot of trees or in their trunks, 
and some have the extraordinary instinct of depositing them in 
such curious places as ants’ nests. They look like the larva of 
cockchafers, but their heads are much smaller, their legs are 
shorter, and the last segment of their body has a little projection 
upon it which is not observed in those insects with which we 
are now comparing them. The larve live together in some 
