THE LEAF-BEETLES. 117 



their forms, but they have the same habits ; living in the 

 centre of stems, and devouring the pith. 



The insects that have passed under consideration in the 

 foregoing part of this treatise spend by far the greater por- 

 tion of their lives, namely, that wherein they are larvae only, 

 in obscurity, buried in the ground, or concealed within the 

 roots, the stems, or the seeds of plants, where they perform 

 their appointed tasks unnoticed and unknown. Thus the 

 work of destruction goes secretly and silently on, till it be- 

 comes manifest by its melancholy consequences ; and too late 

 we discover the hidden foes that have disappointed the hopes 

 of the husbandman, and ruined those spontaneous produc- 

 tions of the soil that constitute so important a source of our 

 comfort and prosperity. 



There still remain several groups of beetles to be described, 

 consisting almost entirely of insects that spend the whole, or 

 the principal part, of their lives upon the leaves of plants, 

 and which, as they derive their nourishment, both in the 

 larva and adult states, from leaves alone, may be called leaf- 

 beetles, or, as they have recently been named, phyllophagous, 

 that is, leaf-eating insects. When, as in certain seasons, they 

 appear in considerable numbers, they do not a little injury 

 to vegetation, and, being generally exposed to view on the 

 leaves that they devour, they soon attract attention. But 

 the power possessed by most plants of renewing their foli- 

 age, enables them soon to recover from the attacks of these 

 devourers ; and the injury sustained, unless often repeated, 

 is rarely attended by the ruinous consequences that follow 

 the hidden and unsuspected ravages of those insects that sap 

 vegetation in its most vital parts. Moreover, the leaf-eaters 

 are more within our reach, and it is not so difficult to destroy 

 them, and protect plants from their depredations. The leaf- 

 beetles are generally distinguished by the want of a snout, by 

 their short legs and broad cushioned feet, and their antennas 

 of moderate length, often thickened a little towards the end, 

 or not distinctly tapering. Some of them have an oblong 



