Objects for the Microscope. 101 



the wild Parsnip, Carrot, and Parsley. They have orange- 

 coloured elytra, or green or buff, tipped with red. Chil- 

 dren call them " soldiers" and " sailors." Carnivorous in 

 their tastes, they haunt flowers for the smaller insects they 

 feed upon, and seize them fiercely in their strong pointed 

 mandibles. When we touch them they depress their heads, 

 become motionless, and counterfeit death. 



They lay their eggs in damp shady places in the earth, 

 where the larvae hatch and live. These are velvety, black, 

 long, soft-bodied maggots, with strong mandibles on their 

 heads, and a curious fleshy tubercle beneath the last segment 

 of the body, which they use in walking. 



Use your lowest power in examining these preparations 

 for a general view of the insect, and then change the object 

 glass progressively upward to the highest power for such 

 parts as require particular attention the tongue, the 

 eye, &c. 



The first part to look at in a slide of Coleoptera is the 

 foot, because the number of joints immediately above 

 the claw, which are called tarsi, determines its position in 

 the family group. All the Beetle tribe are divided into 

 families according to the number of joints of their tarsi. 

 There are four sections 



The Pentamera . or five-jointed. 

 The Heteromera . or five-jointed anterior, and four- 

 jointed posterior tarsi. 



The Tetramera . or four joints to all the tarsi. 

 The Trimera . . or three-jointed tarsi. 



The foot of Telephorus, having five joints, belongs to 

 the first section. Observe how deeply the penultimate joint 

 is bilobed that the tibia or joint above the tarsi has two 

 small spurs that the femur or thigh is stout, and attached 

 to the thorax by two other joints called the coxa and the 

 troclianter. 



Next observe the antennae ; for after deciding this little 

 beetle to belong to the section of the Pentamera, you will 

 know that it is also one of the Serricornes, or third family 



