2 5 6 



Wild Life in Wales 



closely resembles the common Daddy-long-legs in size 

 and appearance, and is, at Llanuwchllyn, apparently more 

 abundant. 



Of the Skip-jack, or Click-Beetles, the number of species 

 in this country is even greater than in the case of the Crane- 

 flies, over seventy having been recognised as distinct. 

 They form the Genus E later, of the Family Elateridte^ and 

 belong to the Order Coleoptera, which embraces those 

 insects in which the first pair of wings have become con- 

 verted into hard cases, or elytra^ under which the second 

 pair are folded up, crosswise, over the back, when not in use. 

 This Order includes all our beetles, ladybirds, weevils, 

 cockchafers, etc. The common name of the Skip-jacks has 

 been bestowed upon them from the remarkable manner 

 in which the beetles, when laid upon their backs, on a flat 

 surface (their legs being too short to enable them to recover 

 their normal position), right themselves by springing several 

 inches (often more than a foot) into the air. This they do 

 with quite an audible snap, or click, by forcibly depressing 

 the extremities of the body, until a small spike on the thorax 

 is suddenly released from a socket on the adjoining segment, 

 causing the arched back to spring back to the horizontal 

 position, striking the surface upon which the beetle lies, as 

 it does so, with sufficient force to throw the insect into the 

 air, when it generally alights upon its feet, and begins to run 

 off. Should the first attempt fail, however, the process is 

 repeated, at frequent intervals, until the desired result is 

 attained. By the simple expedient of holding the beetle by 

 the hinder extremity of the body, between the finger and 

 thumb, the whole of this wonderful mechanism may be 

 easily studied. 1 



Fortunately for the agriculturist, comparatively few 

 of the Skip-jack beetles are harmful to his crops, the larvae 

 of many of them living in decaying wood, and other sub- 

 stances. There is a pretty, metallic blue species, common 

 on the moors, which subsists largely, I believe, on the 



1 For detailed observations on this point, see Darwin's Journal of the 

 Voyage of the " Beagle " (Qth ed., p. 22), etc. ; and Curtis' Farm Insects, 

 already quoted. 



