Introduction 



Beetles, as everyone knows, are Insects, and under 

 the name of Coleoptera (signifying sheath- winged), 

 they form one, and that one of the largest, of the great 

 orders into which the class Insecta is divided, this class 

 being a section of the sub-kingdom Arthwpoda, which 

 comprises probably by far the greater number of distinct 

 species into which animal life on this planet has been 

 differentiated. 



Beetles, like all other objects in nature, have their 

 affinities, and have been divided by naturalists accord- 

 ing to those affinities into sections which correspond 

 more or less with what we must believe to have been 

 the course of their evolution in time. Now, it is not 

 my desire, nor would it be consonant with the purpose 

 of this little book, to weary the reader with the com- 

 plicated tables necessary to explain all these divisions;* 

 but I think I may at least state that there are some 

 eight major groups into which the order may in the 

 first case be divided, and that these divisions depend 

 principally on various structural differences of legs 

 and antennae, as well as of habit. The first of these 

 groups, the Adephaga, contains both land and water 

 beetles ; they all have long thin antennae of uniform 

 thickness throughout, five joints to each tarsus (the 

 tarsus being the last of the three sections of the leg, 

 and analogous to our foot), they are rapid in movement 

 and predaceous in habit. Some are represented on 

 plate B., Fig. i, 2, and 3. 



The second group, the Clavicornia, is very large and 

 contains beetles of very different size, structure, 

 and habit. They may all be known however by 



* For further information on this and other points, see "The 

 Coleoptera of the British Islands," by the Rev. Canon Fowler, 

 M.A., F.E.S., etc. (L. Reeve & Co.), 1887. 



