168 THE WEEVIL TRIBE. 



hue and ebon hardness, even death makes no impression on his 

 outward form ; and the ten years' occupant of a collector's 

 cabinet shows as fresh and life-like, in all but motion, as a 

 really living specimen. The same qualities of perfection and 

 permanence belong, more or less, to the whole order Coleop- 

 tera, comprising the numerous varieties of the Beetle tribe. 



Then (a striking contrast with the above rotundities) there 

 is the pretty and many-coloured tribe of Weevils 1 of form 

 elongate, and further lengthened by a slender beak or rostrum, 

 employed as a spiggot for the tapping of their favourite sappy 

 wine. One of these, now very abundant, especially on the 

 black-thorn, is a little fellow, with a coat of green verditer 

 sometimes glossed with gold. 



We have spoken elsewhere of the most interesting of all 

 objects for which insects can be kept that of observing their 

 transformations, and the varied processes of their constructive 

 skill those especially of the Order Lepidoptera, comprising 

 moths and butterflies. If this practice, instead of being 

 nearly confined to professed entomologists, were very generally 

 followed, the country would have fewer idlers, Nature more 

 admirers, and (it could not be otherwise) the God of Nature 

 more praise. 



Were we to talk about pet-caterpillars, we might be set 

 down as more monstrously absurd than even in our recom- 

 mendation of pet-beetles ; but, however people may smile at 

 the idea, it is seriously and perfectly true that we have had 

 certain caterpillars long enough in our keeping to have 

 acquired for them a sort of fondness, and to have felt sorry 

 when their change came. Of these some were the beautiful 

 larvaB 2 of the sphinx or hawk moths, which, with their gaily- 

 coloured and sometimes shagreened skins, mitre-shaped heads, 

 horn-like tails, and sphinx-like attitudes, seem to have so little 



1 Weevil (Curculio). 



2 Larvae of the Sphingidse (Hawk moths or sphinxes). 



