62 THE YOUNG COLLECTOR'S 



ON THE PART PLAYED BY BEETLES IN 

 THE ECONOMY OF NATURE. 



A "Beetle" often conveys the idea of something peculiarly 

 repulsive ; but this perhaps arises chiefly from its improper 

 association with the "Cockroaches," or "Black Beetles," of 

 our kitchens, which, however, belong to the Order Orthoptera, 

 and are therefore, strictly speaking, not " Beetles " at all. 



An enormous number of beetles are now known ; nearly 

 100,000 of all shapes, colours, and sizes, from a speck scarcely 

 visible to the naked eye, to about six inches in length ; and 

 although beetles are not the largest insects in expanse of wing, 

 some of them are perhaps the heaviest and bulkiest insects 

 known. 



They share with other insects the offices both of general 

 scavengers and also of checks upon the too great luxuriance of 

 vegetation. Many beetles feed on carrion, and especially small 

 animals ; but the work of clearing away such substances is 

 chiefly accomplished by the larvae of various two-winged flies 

 (Diptcrd), Other beetles feed on dung, which they often attack 

 the very moment it is dropped ; and you cannot turn up a patch 

 of dried dung without finding it swarming with beetles. The 

 plant-feeding and wood-feeding beetles, according to their species, 

 attack almost every portion of every plant ; and any species 

 feeding on a cultivated plant is likely to produce great destruction, 

 if it becomes unusually abundant. Of the beetles which feed 

 on other insects, the most important are the Lady-Birds, or 

 Cocdnellida, which destroy the Aphides. We do not meet with 

 many parasitic insects among beetles, but the larvae of the Oil 

 Beetles, or Meloida, and those of the Stylopid<R> are parasitic on 

 Hymenoptera. The Stylopida, which used to be placed in a 

 separate Order (Strepsiptera), are hardly likely to fall under the 

 notice of beginners. They are small black insects, with a single 

 pair of very large wings in the male ; and the larvae are parasitic 

 in the bodies of bees, which the apterous female never quits j 

 and which the male only leaves on emerging from the pupa. 



Beetles have probably not been made of so much use to man 



