ORDER I. COLEOPTERA. 85 



Some species attack dried insects, fur, spices, and 

 innumerable other substances. 



The production of the ticking sound of the Death 

 Watch is accounted for in different ways. Mr. West- 

 wood considers it to be made both by the larvae and also 

 by the perfect insects, and, in the latter case, to be a 

 signal between the two sexes. Another author, men- 

 tioned by him, attributes it to the larvae alone, and 

 supposes its purpose to be, to discover how near to the 

 surface of the wood they have bored. That they have 

 some means of ascertaining this, appears from the 

 fact that the burrows usually terminate, and the 

 change of the insects takes place close to the surface 

 of the wood. 





