INSECTS 



unfrequently get the blame for the blighted appearance of the aphis- 

 infested trees on which they occur. Though of comparatively small 

 size, they are for the most part brightly coloured. The red kinds with 

 two or seven black spots {Coccinella bipunctata and C. septempunctata) are 

 probably the most familiar, though Coccinella 22-puTictata, of a bright 

 lemon colour with about twenty-two roundish black spots, is one of the 

 most elegant ; it may be found on nettles by almost any roadside. 

 There are probably few asparagus beds where the asparagus-beetle 

 {Crioceris asparagi) is not to be found, both in the larval and perfect 

 states, during the summer and autumn ; but though this beetle is usually 

 classed amongst the ' insect pests,' it may be doubted whether its presence 

 has any deleterious effect on the crop, except in those cases where circum- 

 stances arise which favour its development to an abnormal extent. 

 Though the asparagus-beetle is only about a quarter of an inch long, it 

 is very effectively coloured ; the head, antenna and legs are blackish 

 green, the thorax is red, the wing-cases are pale yellow with a very dark 

 blue marking in the shape of a cross, and the whole insect shines as 

 though it had a coat of varnish. 



The rose-beetle [Cetonia aurata), a broad rather flat insect about 

 three-fourths of an inch long, of a beautiful metallic green colour with a 

 few irregular transverse wavy whitish lines on the hind part of the wing- 

 cases, is usually accounted a common insect, and such it undoubtedly 

 was in this county some five-and-twenty years since, when it was to be 

 found abundantly on various kinds of showy flowers, particularly roses 

 and white lilies, and four or five at a time might be taken from a single 

 head of flowers of the mountain-ash in suburban gardens around Norwich. 

 It is however now many years since the writer saw a living example 

 of this fine species. One of the beetles most familiar to the ordinary 

 observer of Nature is the ' dor-beetle,' ' dumbledor,' or ' clock ' [Geotrupes 

 stercorarius), a plump shining black insect about an inch in length, often 

 found flying about roadways at dusk with a loud humming noise. When 

 in full flight its steering powers appear to be defective, as it not unfre- 

 quently comes into collision with pedestrians ; and, when the point 

 of contact is the face, a stinging blow is the result. On the underside 

 the black colour of the insect is relieved by metallic reflections of blue, 

 purple, and green. When taken in the hand and forcibly detained the 

 dor-beetle endeavours to bring about its release either by feigning death, 

 in which case it stretches out its legs to their utmost extent in the most 

 awkward and unnatural positions and then remains absolutely motionless 

 for some time, or it sets up a feeble squeak, standing still and moving 

 the hind part of its body up and down. The mechanism by means 

 of which it produces this noise is worthy of notice. On that side of the 

 basal joint of the hind leg which lies nearest to the body is a con- 

 spicuous oblique ridge, the surface of which bears a number of ex- 

 ceedingly fine transverse ridges, thus forming a sort of file, whilst the 

 hinder edge of the cavity in which the joint works bears a fine smooth 

 ridge ; the friction between the latter and the file when the hind 



III 



