40 THE YOUNG COLLECTOR'S 



we shall never be able to make any practical advance in our 

 knowledge of the subject, unless we are able, not indeed to name 

 every specimen offhand (for this is scarcely within the power of 

 the most experienced Coleopterist), but at least to assign it to 

 its place in the system with approximate accuracy. 



First of all, how do we ascertain that our insect is really a 

 beetle ? Beetles belong to the Order Coleoptera, or case- winged 

 insects. They have four wings, like most other insects ; but the 

 two first are modified into stiff wing-covers called elytra, which 

 protect the delicate transparent under-wings, when these are 

 not in use, and serve rather as poisers than as locomotive organs 

 during flight. The elytra are generally hard and horny, though 

 sometimes of a leathery consistency, but always much stouter in 

 texture than the lower wings. They almost always meet down 

 the middle of the back in a straight suture. In some families, 

 especially in the Staphylinidce and allied families, which are often 

 called Drachelytra on that account, they are very short, leaving 

 the greater part of the abdomen exposed. In some wingless 

 beetles the elytra are present and movable, and in others they 

 are soldered together ; while in a few instances, as in the female 

 of the common glow-worm, both wings and elytra are absent. 



The character of the wings at once separates the Coleoptera 

 from all orders of insects except the Orthoptera and the Hemip- 

 tera; but the last have a strong proboscis for imbibing their food, 

 whereas the Coleoptera are provided with mandibles for biting. 

 There remains the Orthoptera; but in these insects, the tegmina, 

 as their wing-cases are called, differ much less from the lower 

 wings ; they are generally more 01 less veined, and often overlap 

 each other, in all which characters they differ from Coleoptera ; 

 besides, the Orthoptera have imperfect metamorphoses that is, 

 the stages of larva, pupa, and perfect insect are not sharply 

 defined ; but in Coleoptera the metamorphosis is complete, and 

 a beetle passes through the four stages of egg, larva, pupa, 

 and imago, or perfect beetle. 



The larvae of beetles are white maggots, with a hard head, and 

 sex legs, and the pupa is inactive ; but the cases which enclose 

 the various parts of the perfect insect are much more clearly 

 visible than in the pupae of Lepidoptera. 



Before proceeding to give a short sketch of the principal 

 sections into which the great Order Coleoptera has been divided 

 by Entomologists, it will be necessary to notice a few more points 

 in the structure of beetles. Their bodies are divided, like those 

 of other insects, into three principal portions ; viz. , head, thorax, 

 and abdomen. The most important parts of the head are the 



