Beetles. 131 



lady butterflies. The larvae of the true butterflies do 

 not spin a cocoon. 



ORDER XII. Coleoptera. Beetles form numeri- 

 cally the largest sub-division of the animal kingdom, 

 there being over seventy thou- FIG. 75. 



sand species. In these the fore 

 wings are converted into a hard 

 thick pair of wing-covers or elytra 

 overlapping the hinder pair, which 

 are membranous, folded, and 

 usually capable of flight. Beetles 

 are found in almost every condition 

 and feed on almost every kind 

 of material ; cayenne pepper, can- 

 tharides, medicinal rhubarb, animal and P u ? a - 

 effete matter, putrid flesh and decaying vegetables are 

 the favourite nourishment of some forms. 



There are forty-eight families included in this 

 * polymorphic ' order ; one of these contains the little 

 ladybird or Coctinella, whose spotted bodies are often 

 seen on nettles in pursuit of the aphides on which they 

 feed. It has only three large joints in the tarsus of 

 each foot. The destructive Colorado or potato beetle 

 (Doryphora) somewhat resembles the ladybird but is 

 ten-striped and not spotted. Many beetles are ex- 

 tremely destructive to vegetation, both in their larval 

 and perfect states, the strong mandibulate mouths 

 being able to cut even hard woods. Of these, the 

 turnip-fly, the wire-worm (which is the larva of the 

 beetle called Agriotes), the pine-beetle, the typographic 

 beetle, Scolytus the elm-beetle, Lymexylon the oak- 

 beetle, are illustrations. 



KJ 



