12 THE ORDERS OF INSECTS. 



The hinder angles of the thorax are very acute, and many of the 

 species have a habit of doubling themselves up when they fall 

 on their backs, and jerking themselves on their legs with a click. 

 They are therefore sometimes called " Click Beetles," and their 

 larvae are very long, slender, and tough, and are too well known 

 to farmers and gardeners as wire-worms. The Telephorida 

 resemble these beetles in their shape, being rather long insects ; 

 but they are of gayer colours, being reddish or ochreous instead, 

 of black or bronzed, and their elytra are unusually soft for 

 beetles. But their habits are predaceous, notwithstanding their 

 apparently fragile structure. The Glow-worm (Lampyris 

 Noctiluca), in which the male is a brown beetle, about half an 

 inch long, and the female is wingless, is allied to these. 



The Tenebrionida and allied families may be known from 

 all the foregoing groups by having only four joints to the hind 

 tarsi, and five on the front and middle legs. The preceding 

 families have five joints to the tarsi of all the legs. They may 

 also be known by their antennae, which are moniliform, or com- 

 posed of a number of bead-like joints. Several species are 

 very familiar, such as the ugly, dull-black, wingless Cellar 

 Beetles (Blaps) ; the rather narrow black beetle ( Tenebrio 



Cellar Beetle (Blaj>s Klortisaga), natural size. 



^ the larva of which feeds on flour, etc., and is called the 

 Meal-worm ; the large soft-bodied sluggish Oil Beetle (Mdoe\ 

 which has no wings, and only rudimentary elytra, and which is 

 generally found among grass ; and the beautiful green Blister 

 Beetle (Cantharis Vesicatoria}, which is found on ash-trees, but 

 which is rare in this country. 



The great group of Curculionid<, or Weevils, may generally 

 be recognised at once by their heads being produced into a kind 



