BEETLES. 61 



days when wainscoting was common than in the present day, and it 

 is not surprising that it was believed to be supernatural in the 

 absence of any visible cause. 



The Lampyridce include the Glow-worms and Fire-flies. The 

 males are always winged and the females often grub-like, but all 

 forms, including the eggs, are luminous. They are predaceous 

 insects, most, if not all, of them preying upon slugs and snails. 



The ElateridcB are better known in the larval stage, as the 

 Wire- worms so injurious to crops, than in the adult form, when they 

 are often called Skipjacks, or Click beetles. The species of one 

 Tropical American genus, Pyrophorus, are luminous and, like the 

 Lampyridtz, are called Fire-flies. The light proceeds from spots 

 upon the upper surface of the thorax. In the Lampyridw it comes 

 chiefly from the lower surface of the abdomen. 



Most of the Buprestidce are very brilliantly-coloured and the 

 wing-covers of some of them are often used in Oriental embroideries. 

 Most of their larvas are long, flattened, legless grubs which feed in 

 timber. The spiral burrow made in a bough of the Cork-oak in 

 France by a species of Coroebus is exhibited. 



The MeloidcB are parasites, feeding during the larval period upon 

 the eggs, young, or stored food of other insects. Meloe proscarabceus 

 is a common British species. It undergoes several extraordinary 

 changes of form before reaching the pupal stage. The mature 

 insects feed upon foliage, and are protected from birds and insect- 

 eating animals by a caustic secretion which they can exude and 

 which is extracted and used medically under the name of can- 

 tharidine. 



The Ourculionidce, or Weevils, are an enormous family of 

 vegetable-feeders, many of which cause serious injury to cultivators. 

 One of the largest of them is the Palm-weevil (Rhymhophorus) which 

 destroys the interior of the Cocoanut Palm, working upwards from 

 the roots and ultimately reducing the tree to a shell. 



A very injurious species found in this country is Pissodes notatus. 

 A small piece of young Austrian pine infested by this insect is 

 exhibited. An entire plantation of young trees of this species at 

 Dorchester was destroyed. The habits of several other British 

 Weevils are illustrated by models on the East side of the Gallery. 

 Ceuthorrhynclms sulcicollis (55) produces excrescences upon turnips 

 or cabbage stems within which its larvae feed. The Apple -blossom 

 Weevil, Anthonomus pomorwn (53), kills the flower buds of the 

 apple tree, one egg being laid by the mother in each bud. The 



