

BEETLES. 



years; during the greater part of which time it is ! 

 supported by devouring the roots of wheat, rye, j 

 oats, and grass, annually causing a large dimi- 

 nution of the produce, and sometimes destroy- 

 ing whole crops. It is said to be particularly , 

 injurious in gardens recently converted from 

 pasture lands. We have several grubs allied 

 to this destructive insect, which are quite com- 

 mon in land newly broken up ; but fortunately, 

 as yet, their ravages are inconsiderable. We 

 may expect these to increase in proportion as 

 we disturb them and deprive them of their 

 usual articles of food, while we continue also 

 to persecute and destroy their natural enemies, 

 the birds, and may then be obliged to resort to 

 the ingenious method adopted by European far- 

 mers and gardeners for alluring and capturing 

 these grubs. This method consists in strewing 

 sliced potatoes or turnips in rows through the 

 garden or field ; women and boys are employed 

 to examine the slices every morning, and col- 

 lect the insects which readily come to feed on 

 the bait. Some of these destructive insects, 

 which I have found in the ground amonij the 

 roots of plants, were long, slender, worm-like 

 grubs, closely resembling the common meal- 

 worm ; they were nearly cylindrical, with a 

 hard and smooth skin, of a buff or brownish 

 yellow colour, the head and tail only being a 

 little darker ; each of the first three rings was 

 provided with a pair of short legs : the hind- 

 most ring was longer than the preceding one, 

 was pointed at the end, and had a little pit on 

 each side of the extremity ; beneath this part 

 there was a short retractile wart, or prop-leg, 

 serving to support the extremity of the body, 

 and prevent it from trailing on the ground. 

 Other grubs of Elaters differ from the forego- 

 ing in being proportionally broader, not cylin- 

 drical, but somewhat flattened, with a deep 

 notch at the extremity of the last ring, the 

 sides of which are beset with little teeth. 

 Such grubs are mostly wood-eaters, devouring 

 the woody parts of roots, or living under the 

 bark and in the trunks of old trees. 



" After their last transformation, Elaters or 

 spring-beetles make their appearance upon 

 trees and fences, and some are found on 

 flowers. They creep slowly, and generally 

 fall to the ground on being touched. They fly 

 both by day and night. Their food, in the 

 beetle state, appears to be chiefly derived from 

 flowers ; but some devour the tender leaves of 

 plants." 



The largest of the American springing- 

 beetles is of a black colour, covered with a 

 whitish powder, and having a large oval velvet- 

 black spot, like an eye, on each side of the 

 middle, from which the insect derives its name 

 of Oculatus, or eyed. This large beetle mea- 

 sures from one inch and a quarter to one inch 

 and three quarters in length. It undergoes its 

 transformations in the trunks of trees, and Dr. 

 Harris has found many in old apple trees. 

 These larvse or worms are reddish yellow 

 grubs. One of them found in April fully grown, 

 measured no less than two inches and a half 

 in length. Soon after this grub was found, it 

 cast its skin and became a pupa, and in due 

 time the latter was transformed to a beetle. 

 (Harris.") 



BELLADONA. 



Among the night-shining Elaters is the cele- 

 brated Cucurio, or fire-beetle, of the West In- 

 dies, from whence it is often brought alive to 

 this country as a curiosity. It resembles con- 

 siderably the insect just described, being an 

 inch or more in length. It gives out, even by 

 day, a strong light from two transparent eye- 

 like spots on the thorax, and from the seg- 

 ments of its body beneath. It feeds upon 

 the sugar-cane, and its grub is said to be 

 very injurious to this plant, by devouring its 

 roots. 



Dr. Harris states that above sixty different 

 kinds of spring-beetles are now known to in- 

 habit Massachusetts. 



The utility of a knowledge of the natural 

 history of insects in the practical arts of life, 

 was perhaps never more strikingly and tri- 

 umphantly displayed than by the great Lin- 

 naeus himself, who, while giving to natural 

 science its language and its laws, neglected 

 no opportunity to point out its economical ad- 

 vantages. On one occasion, this irn-at natu- 

 ralist was consulted by the King of Sweden, 

 upon the cause of the decay and destruction 

 of the ship-timber in the royal dock-yards, and, 

 having traced it to the depredations of insects, 

 and ascertained the history of the depredators, 

 by directing the timber to be sunk under water 

 during the season when these insects made 

 their appearance in the winged state, and were 

 busied in laying their eggs, he effectually se- 

 cured it from future attacks. The name of 

 these insects is Lymexylon navale, or the naval 

 timber-destroyer, which Dr. Harris thinks 

 cannot be far removed from the tribe of spring- 

 beetles. The odd-looking, long, and slender 

 grubs of the Lymexylon, inhabit oaks, and 

 make long cylindrical burrows in the solid 

 wood. They are also found in some other 

 kinds of trees. Dr. Harris considers insects 

 of this family rather rare in New England, and 

 describes only two kinds of American timber- 

 borers. (See his Treatise.) 



BEETLE. A large wooden instrument in 

 the form of a mallet, with one, two, or three 

 handles for as many persons, used in driving 

 piles, wedges, hedge-stakes, and in splitting 

 wood, &c. 



BEETLE, CLODDING. A sort of imple- 

 ment made use of in reducing the clods of 

 tillage-lands, in clayey and other stiff tena- 

 cious soils, to a fine powdery condition. This 

 business may be much sooner performed, and 

 at less expense, by means of rollers construct- 

 ed for the purpose. (See ROLLER.) 



BEEVES. The plural of beef. A general 

 name employed by farmers for oxen or black 

 cattle. 



BEGGAR'S LICE (Echinaspernum Virgini- 

 cum). An obnoxious weed found along the 

 borders of woods, bearing a small bluish-white 

 flower, frequent in pastures and along fence- 

 rows, the bur-like fruit or nuts of which are 

 furnished with hooked prickles, and often form 

 a matting in the fleeces of sheep, and the manes 

 and tails of horses. (Flor. Cestrica.) 



BELLADONNA (Atropa belladonna). In bo- 

 tany, the Deadly Nightshade. It is an aero- 

 narcotic poison. This name, btlladunna (sig- 

 nifying Handsome Lady), according to Ray, 



175 



