1 62 THE WOODLANDS. 



CHAPTER IX. 



BEETLES. 



INSECTS abound wherever vegetable life is profuse. 

 The green plant or the decaying plant furnishes food 

 to myriads of minute insects ; larger carnivorous insects 

 find here the favourable conditions which their habits 

 demand ; hence they collect in such spots, and prey 

 upon the smaller and weaker. Birds and reptiles 

 follow the insects ; quadrupeds in their turn follow 

 the birds. The flesh-feeders thus depending one 

 upon another for existence, have a primary depen- 

 dence upon vegetable life. There are, of course, 

 exceptions to this, in the case of the quadrupeds and 

 birds which are direct vegetable-feeders. In all cases 

 the original source of support to animal life lies in 

 the vegetable ; hence, wherever there is the greatest 

 variety of plants there will naturally be the greatest 

 variety of animals, whether quadrupeds, birds, reptiles, 

 or insects. 1 



1 " Facts serve to show," writes C. V. Riley, " that, seek where 

 we may, we cannot find a place or a substance in which or on 

 which some insect does not feed. They people the atmosphere 

 around us, swim at ease in the water, and penetrate the solid 

 earth beneath our feet, while some of them inhabit indifferently 

 all three of these elements at different epochs of their lives." 



