INTRODUCTION 25 



This, too, is a large and curiously varied order. The tiger 

 beetles, Cicindelidce, and the ground beetles, Carabidce, are 

 carnivorous, and therefore of some economic importance ; 

 many of them are aboreal and seek their prey in trees. 

 The rove beetles, Staphylinidce, have shortened wing covers 

 that look as if they had been broken off in the middle ; they 

 exist on decaying animal and vegetable matter and do a 

 certain amount of good as scavengers. The leather beetles, 

 Dermestidce, are household or warehouse insects, and they 

 do considerable damage to hides, bacon, and dried foods. 

 The stag beetles, Lucanidce, are many of them exceedingly 

 handsome, though not of great economic importance, for 

 their food is dead or dying wood. The scarab or dung 

 beetles, Scarabwidce, live on excrement and on decaying 

 animal matter ; the Cetonidce or rose-chafers, on the other 

 hand, are commonly met with on the blossoms of rose trees. 

 The tastes of beetles are varied in the extreme. Other 

 flower-frequenting families are the Buprestidw and the 

 Elateridce or click beetles, though the latter are chiefly 

 notorious on account of the damage done to the roots of 

 various plants by their grubs, commonly known as " wire- 

 worms." The Tenebrimiidce are a funereal-looking family, 

 mostly black or dark brown, of which the meal-wonn, men- 

 tioned elsewhere, is a common and destructive member. 

 The weevils or Curculionidce are a very distinctive group, 

 on account of their characteristic snouts, which have earned 

 them the name of elephant beetles. Many of them are 

 exceedingly destructive to crops. Another beautiful, though 

 harmful, family is the Cerambycidce or Longicorn beetles, 

 remarkable for their extraordinarily long antennae and the 

 wood-boring habits of their larvae. The Chrysomelidce are 

 brightly coloured beetles, and many of them are very de- 

 structive to plant foliage. Somewhat resembling them, on a 

 small scale, though of course there are constant and impor- 

 tant differences, are the CoccineUidce, known to all as lady- 

 birds, and, with few exceptions, as exceedingly useful insects. 



