ORDER COLEOPTERA 



97 



Many male b< illy Lai >hy- 



liniils. ( ".iiit h i >i 1 . etc., I 

 ornamented with horns, which 

 "\i.-t only as rudiments or 

 wholly wanting in the other Bex; 

 in tin- male Lucanue ( Fig. 1 I'M the 

 mandibles are of great size (com- 

 pare also Fig . 38 and 89). Darwin 

 remarks that beetles belonging to 

 many ami widely distinct families 

 a stridulating organs. Cer- 

 tain musical weevils ''an be heard 

 at a distance of several feet or even 

 yards; the apparatus varying much 

 in position on tin- bod.3 , but usu- 

 ally consisting of a rasp or sel of 

 ribs, ami a Bcraper; in many Lon- 

 gicorns the rasp is on the mi 

 thorax, which is rubbed against the 

 prothorax : but t ho apparatus does 

 not differ much according to 

 ( Darwin. ) 



Protected from harm by their 

 hard Bhell-like skin and their thick 

 wing - covers, and living, as un-nlis. 

 as pupa?, aud ;i- beetles, quite dif- 

 ferent lives, it would he hard to ex- 

 terminate tlii-ni. .Myriad as are 

 their forms, every species has slight- 

 ly different hal>its and surround- 

 ings from it> allies, and thus tills a 

 niche in the insect-world which it 

 alone can occupy. And it is this 

 wonderful power of adaptation to ' • - 

 changes in circumstances, as well male 

 as then* solid skins and complete 

 metamorphosis, which lias enabled the gri 

 over 100,000 kinds to become so abundant and prominent 



