560 INSECTA ORDER COLEOPTERA. 



scientific term being reserved for the reddish-brown cockroaches, which do 

 not agree with either the adjective or the noun. 



Another beetle common in houses is Tenebrio molitor (Linn.), a narrow, dark 



brown beetle about half an inch in length, which is better known in its larval 



state as the meal-worm. Out of doors the oil-beetles, of the 



Meal Worms and genus Meloe (Linn.), are familiar objects, and can hardly be 



Oil-Beetles. mistaken for anything else. They are large, soft, sluggish, 



blue-black beetles, with short, soft, and perfectly useless 



elytra, and are found clinging to blades of grass. Their transformations are 



extremely remarkable, for they pass their early stages in bees' nests, and 



undergo two or three transformations into larvae and pupae before assuming 



the perfect state, which even then is sufficiently incomplete, as they never 



develop wings, except in the rudimentary form above described. 



The blister-beetle, Cantharis vesicatoria (Linn.), is too well-known to need 



description. It is found in the south of England, but is too rare with us to 



be of any commercial value ; the chief supply comes from 



Blister-Beetles. Southern Europe. An ash tree loaded with these beautiful 



metallic green beetles is a splendid sight in the sunshine. 



Mylabris (Fabr.) is a rather large genus of Heteromera, the species of which 



are used for blistering purposes in some countries, but it is not represented 



in Britain. They are black beetles, with yellow or tawny spots and bands. 



The Rhynchophvra, or weevils, are a very large group of beetles, which 



may easily be distinguished by the apparently four- jointed tarsi on all 



the legs ; by their very hard integuments, and by the struc- 



WeevUs. ture of their head and antennae. The head is produced 



into a long snout, towards the end of which 

 the short, angulated, and generally clubbed antennas project 

 on each side. Most of our British species are of small \ 

 size ; but among the foreign beetles we find the large and 

 ' beautiful metallic green diamond-beetles, and 

 Diamond- the palm-weevil of the West Indies, a large 

 Beetles. reddish-brown beetle an inch and a half 

 long, the wood-feeding grub of which is con- 

 sidered a great delicacy. The nut-weevil, Balaninus nucum 

 (Linn.), is a small brown beetle, with the elytra varied with 

 grey. It is about of an inch in length, and is represented 

 somewhat above natural size in the accompanying wood-cut. 

 It exhibits the peculiar structure of the rostrum and antennas nucum, Linn.), 

 very typically. The Scolytidce have the head less prolonged 

 than usual among the weevils, and are extremely destructive to trees, eating 

 galleries through the wood in all directions. 



The Longicornes, or long-horned beetles, are an extensive group, with ap- 

 parently four- jointed tarsi, long slender antennas, often as long and sometimes 

 many times longer than the body ; not clubbed at the ex- 

 Long-Horned tremity, but with along and thick basal joint. The eyes are 

 Beetles. generally more or less constricted in the middle, at least 011 

 one side, and are sometimes completely divided, as in the 

 Gyrinidce. They are generally insects of large size with long bodies, and 

 their larvas feed in the wood of trees. They are very numerous in warm 

 climates; but most of our British species are either of small size, or are scarce. 

 Others, which are not considered indigenous, are frequently imported into 

 England with timber. One of the commonest and most beautiful of our 



