80 INSECTS. 



ful shining green beetle, is also to be found in roses 

 (but far less frequently than the Phyllopertha), 

 especially in white and blush roses ; and the most 

 fastidious insect-hater could hardly deny that the pre- 

 sence of one of these green gems is a beauty added to 

 the flower. They do not, like the June-bug, devour the 

 petals or injure the appearance of the blossom. 



PRIOCERATA, the fourth and last Subsection of penta- 

 merous beetles, has thread-shaped antennae, generally 

 either tapering or uniform in thickness, and not long. 

 In the males, or in both sexes, these antenna are com- 

 monly serrated, or more deeply toothed like a comb. 



These beetles include (with others) the hard-bodied 

 Skipjacks, or Elater family, of which the too well- 

 known Wireworm is the larva ; and the soft-bodied 

 Glowworms, Soldiers, Sailors, and others. Most of the 

 beetles of this section are long and narrow in shape. 



The common Skipjack (PL II. fig. 4) is a long, slender, 

 hard, uninteresting-looking brown beetle, about half an 

 inch long, with very small legs, and neither throat nor 

 waist, the head being indeed sunk up to the eyes in the 

 thorax. The antenn are short and slightly serrated. 



On the approach of danger, this insect, contracting its 

 limbs and antennae, falls to the ground, where it lies 

 on its back, motionless and feigning death, sometimes 

 for a considerable time, and, indeed, until it believes 

 the danger to be passed ; when, with a sudden click, 

 it springs high into the air, probably alighting on 

 its legs; or, if it fail in this, repeating the spring until 

 it is successful. The point of the breast-plate, which is 

 capable of being slipped in and out of a groove behind it, 

 is the instrument used to effect this leap. 



The same power of leaping when lying on the back is 



