COLEOPTEROUS INSECTS. 85 



of many of these might, for aught we know, have 

 been equally well performed had there been.no such 

 marked dissimilarity. 



The colouring and variegation of coleopterous 

 insects are not less remarkable than their forms. 

 In the variety and beauty of their hues, they seem 

 to combine the clearness and decision of tint pos- 

 sessed by flowers, with the diversified markings of 

 the feathered race, and the metallic splendour of 

 the mineral kingdom. " In this tribe," says an 

 author, determined that his language shall not fall 

 short of his subject, " lavish nature sports gorge- 

 ously in the mingled riches of indescribably reful- 

 gent colours, proof against a continuance of the 

 visual ray, which makes the eyelids dance, while 

 the optic nerve aches at the splendour."* " Na- 

 ture in her sportive mood," say Messrs Kirby and 

 Spence, speaking, it is true, of insects in general, 

 but all their observations apply to beetles, " when 

 painting them, sometimes imitates the clouds of 

 heaven ; at others, the meandering course of the 

 rivers of the earth, or the undulations of their 

 waters : many are veined like beautiful marbles ; 

 others have the semblance of a robe of the finest 

 net-work thrown over them : some she blazons with 

 heraldic insignia, giving them to bear infields sable- 

 azure vert gules argent and or, fesses bars 

 bends crosses crescents stars, and even ani- 



* Barbut's Gen. of Insects, p. 46. 



