318 MOTIONS OF INSECTS. 



rather strong pull to disengage them from their station. 

 The whole tribe of weevils (Rhynchophora, Latr.) are 

 also furnished with these cushions, but not always upon 

 all their joints, some having them only at their apex ; 

 and the palm-weevil (fordylia Palmarum) at the extre- 

 mity solely of the last joint but one. Those brilliant 

 beetles the Bup?*estes have also these cushions, as have 

 likewise the numerous tribes of capricorn-beetles (Longi- 

 cornes, Latr). The larvae of these being timber-borers, 

 the parent insect is probably thus enabled to adhere to 

 this substance whilst it deposits its eggs. Indeed in 

 some species of the former genus the cushions wear 

 the appearance of suckers. While the linear species 

 of Helops are without them, they clothe all the tarsi of 

 H. anew (Chalcites K. Ms.) a . In two other genera of 

 the same order, Silpha and Cicindela, the anterior tarsi 

 of the males are furnished with them ; in these therefore 

 they may be regarded, like the suckers of the larger 

 water-beetles (Dytisci), as given for sexual purposes. 

 The three first joints of the anterior tarsi of many of 

 the larger rove-beetles (Staphylinus, L.) are dilated so as 

 to form, as in the last-mentioned insects, an orbicular pa- 

 tella, but covered by cushions. Since in them this is not 

 peculiar to the males, it is probably given that they may 

 be able to support their long bodies when climbing. 



But the most remarkable class of climbers consists of 

 those that are furnished with an apparatus by which they 

 can form a vacuum, so as to adhere to the plane on which 

 they are moving by atmospheric pressure. That flies 



a The insect here alluded to is figured by Olivier under the name 

 of Tenebrio nitens (No. 57. t. \.f, 4.) : his Helops ceneus (No. 58, 1. i. 

 f. 7.) is a different insect. 



