1906 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



349 



In our journey upward in the great insect 

 realm we have looked upon and admired the 

 gauzy- winged neuroptera ; stood appalled be- 

 fore the whilome ravages of the locust or- 

 der; studied sympathetically the bugs, eve- 

 rywhere regarded with pitying contempt; 

 wondered that such tiny creatures as thrips 

 could work such colossal mischief; wished 

 that the mallophaga— bird hce— with their 

 piercing jaws in lieu of the sharp beaks of 

 the true lice, might have been omitted from 

 the program of creation; and now we come 

 to the largest order of all— the 



COLEOPTERA, OR BEETLES. 



These are often called bugs. This is a 

 pity, for beetles are very different from 

 bugs. We know them in the common de- 

 structive potato-beetles, the valuable lady- 

 bird beetles, and the common robust, brown 

 Mayor June beetle ("June bug"), which, 

 in ante-window-screen days, used so fre- 

 quently to enter our rooms in the evening 

 twilight after the lamps were lighted. The 

 name, Coleoptera, means sheathed wings, 

 and shows Linnaeus' genius at naming, for, 

 as we all know, these beetles, except a few 

 wingless forms like the female firefly bee- 

 tles, all have their front or upper wings 

 thickened, and so made to serve as protec- 

 tion for the under or secondary wings, 

 which, of course, alone do service in flight. 

 These thick upper wings or wing-covers are 

 known as elytra. They alone are enough to 

 betray the identity of any beetle, except the 

 few that have no wings at all. These apte- 

 rous insects are to be found in all orders. It 

 is usually an acquired condition. The insect 

 ceases to use its wings; they shrink from 

 idleness, and soon, or after a time, disap- 

 pear. California, when it became arid, ceas- 

 ed, to grow trees in great part, so the bee- 

 tles elected to walk rather than to fly ; and 

 hence many beetles in California are wing- 

 less. These run on the ground, and so are 

 often black, that mimicry may aid them in 

 the fight that all animals— yea, all life- 

 must perforce wage in this world of conten- 

 tion and conflict. 



Beetles have good strong biting mouth 

 parts, as will soon become evident if we 

 pick up a large ground-beetle. He is not 

 slow to try his jaws upon us. He is usually 

 set free! The jaws are often quite effective. 

 I have known them to eat through lead 

 pipe, and they are reported to have eaten 

 through an iron canister. This feature sep- 

 arates beetles from bugs. Beetles bite and 

 eat: bugs pierce and suck. 



Again, beetles pass, as do bees, through a 



complete metamorphosis. The larvae, called 

 grubs, usually have six legs. A few have 

 none at all, and are long, slim, or wormlike, 

 though some, like the grubs of the potato- 

 beetles, are not so long. Some, like the 

 wire- worms, larvae of the spring beetles, or 

 elaters, are very long and slender. The 

 common white grub (larva of the May or 

 June beetle, which we so often see in the 

 spring as we dig in our gardens) is the most 

 familiar and best- known example of the 

 beetle order. 



While many beetles, like the common 

 rose- chafer, do immense harm as adults, the 

 most do their mischief as grubs. Some of 

 these, like the white grubs and wire- worms, 

 are often alarmingly destructive, and vie 

 with the very worst insect pests in the mis- 

 chief they cause. 



Beetles are excessively abundant— certain- 

 ly the largest order. I have seen the state- 

 ment that they outnumber all other insects, 

 which is doubtless true. That they exceed 

 in numbers all other animals combined is 

 also affirmed; and I have heard it said that 

 they exceed all other forms of life— plant 

 and animal— in number of species. Both of 

 these latter statements need confirmation— 

 especially the last. 



A few beetles interest the bee-keeper much, 

 for he sees them in his depopulated hives and 

 among the combs in the honey-house. Such 

 are the flour-beetle, Tenebrio molitor, and 

 the bacon- beetle, Dermestes lardarius, both 

 of which are illustrated in my "Bee-keep- 

 ers' Guide." These beetles are there for 

 the pollen and dead bees, and are not a seri- 

 ous menace at any time. If combs are not 

 exposed they will not harbor these coleopte- 

 rous. 



As beetles eat, ratiier than suck, the sov- 

 ereign remedy is some arsenite like Paris 

 green, London purple, etc. Millions of dol- 

 lars have been saved to our country and 

 people since the advent of the Colorado po- 

 tato-beetle in the potato-growing regions by 

 fighting with the arsenical poisons. In some 

 cases mechanical means are effective in this 

 warfare. This is exemplified in the common 

 jarring method of fighting the plum-curcu- 

 lio. When the grubs eat under ground, like 

 Fuller's rose-beetle, bisulphide of carbon is 

 found to be a very effective remedy, and 

 not expensive. 



LANDWIRTSCHAFT. 



I have attended this week a monster agra- 

 rian rally from all sections of the twenty-six 

 German states. There were more than 2000 

 members present, and they represented 371,- 

 000 farmers, organized for business. They 

 feel that America is crowding them to the 

 wall, and demand of the government a high 

 tariff that will protect them against foreign 

 competition. They cheered to the echo eve- 

 ry reference to the Kaiser, whom they re- 

 gard as a staunch supporter of their cause. 

 William II. was once opposed to the so- 

 called agrarian laws, and referred to them 

 as "bread usury." He has now wheeled 

 about, and says that the farmers are the 



