BEETLE 



661 



BEETLE 



The Moonlight Sonata. One evening as 

 Beethoven and a companion were hurrying 

 through the streets of Bonn they heard, through 

 the open window of a humble dwelling, the 

 lovely strains of the Sonata in F. As they 

 stopped to listen there came a cry of despair, 

 "Oh! If I could but hear some really good 

 musician play this wonderful piece." Enter- 

 ing the cottage, they found the player to be 

 a young blind girl. Beethoven sat down at 

 the old piano and played as if inspired, but 

 the blind girl, who listened with awed delight, 

 knew not that it was the great Beethoven 

 until he struck the opening bars of the Sonata 

 in F. Suddenly the candle flickered and went 

 out and the music ceased. Beethoven's friend 

 stepped to the window and opened the shut- 

 ters, and as the beautiful moonlight flooded 

 the room he began to improvise a tender 

 melody that seemed the embodiment of the 

 silvery light . that transfigured everything it 

 touched. The great composer then hastened 

 home to put the music into form. He named 

 it the Sonata in C Sharp Minor, but lovers 

 of its exquisite melody will always call it the 

 Moonlight Sonata. B.M.W. 



BEETLE, bee' t'l, the common name of the 

 largest order of insects in the world, of which 

 no fewer than 150,000 species have been 

 studied and described, over 12,000 of them in 

 America, north of Mexico. The name beetle 



PARTS OF A BEETLE 



fa) Mouth parts (/) Femur 



(b) Head (g) Tibia 



(c) Compound eye (h) Tarsal segments 



(d) Antenna (i) Abdomen 



(e) First, second, third 



thorax 



means biter, -and has reference to the strong 

 mouth parts, which are well adapted to seiz- 

 ing and tearing their prey, but it is the scien- 

 tific name Coleoptera, meaning sheath-wings, 

 which indicates their distinctive characteristic. 

 Some beetles are so tiny that they can scarcely 

 be seen, and some are startling-looking crea- 



tures as much as four inches in length; some 

 are very flat and others almost as round as 

 balls ; some are long and slim, others circu- 

 lar; and there are the greatest variations in 

 color, from sober black or brown to brilliant 

 reds and greens and metallic blues. All are 

 distinguished, however, by the horny fore- 

 wings which cover and hide the membranous 

 hind wings when the insect is at rest, and pro- 

 tect the soft back. The under part of the 

 body, too, has a thick, horny armor, and there 

 is no doubt that this "shell," easily crushed 

 though it is, has had much to do with making 

 the beetles the most numerous of insects; for 

 the stiff and prickly substance is not especially 

 agreeable to birds, which would otherwise 

 greedily devour them. 



Life History. No other insects have been 

 studied as widely and as carefully as have the 

 adult beetles, and they have always been 

 favorite objects with collectors because their 

 hard outer covering makes it possible to pre- 

 serve them in perfect shape with very little 

 trouble; but the earlier stages of beetle-life 

 are comparatively little known. It is certain, 

 however, that all beetles have what is known 

 as a "complete metamorphosis" that is, there 

 are four stages in their development. First 

 comes the egg laid by the female in such a 

 location that the newly-hatched young will 

 have food ready at hand. The next form is 

 the larva, usually a disgusting-looking, soft, 

 white grub, which differs from the caterpillar, 

 or butterfly larva, in that it lives for three or 

 four years in that state, before it becomes a 

 dormant pupa. Either in a rude cocoon of its 

 own making or in a burrow, the pupa rests 

 quietly for a period which varies from two to 

 three weeks to as many years, and when it 

 emerges it is a full-grown beetle. 



Habits. Few places on the earth are free 

 from beetles, which live in the water, either 

 salt or fresh, and on the land, underground and 

 at the surface, while some species live as para- 

 sites on other animals. Of course there are 

 modifications of structure to meet all these 

 different modes of life, as well as to adapt the 

 beetles for securing the particular food which 

 they prefer. Some live on vegetable matter, 

 and certain of these species, both as larvae and 

 as full-grown beetles are very harmful to crops 

 (see POTATO BUG). Others live on animal food, 

 some of them catching insects alive, others 

 preferring decaying matter, and these latter, 

 in their office of scavengers, render valuable 

 service to man. Two of the most helpful 



