CHAPTEE III. 



CELLAR BEETLES AND MEAL WORMS. 



THE beetles whose ravages and life history have already 

 occupie4 our attention illustrate very well two of the 

 great primary divisions of the Coleoptera, viz., the Tere- 

 dilia or wood-borers, containing the Death Watch and its 

 allies, which are all summed up in a single small family, 

 and the Clavicornia or Club-horns, to which the Bacon 

 Beetle and its skin-devouring relatives are referable. 

 We thus see that in each section, out of some hundreds 

 of species of more or less similar structure, only a very 

 small proportion, and those almost entirely confined to 

 a single family in each case, bring themselves into 

 collision with human household interests. 



And in the same way, to get our next illustrations, 

 we must go to another great primary section of the 

 order, and select a few species therefrom. This section 

 is called the Heteromera, a word which, being literally 

 translated from the Greek, means "different joints, 7 

 and is given in reference to a peculiarity by which these 

 insects are sharply distinguished from most of those 

 already referred to, viz., that while the tarsi, or feet, 

 of the first two pairs of legs consist of five little joints 

 succeeding one another in longitudinal row, those of the 

 hind pair have only four such joints, our preceding 

 examples, except the little oddity Mycetcea, having been 



furnished with five on all their limbs. 



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