DESCRIPTION OF THE MUSEUM. 



more particularly attack the composite and um- 

 belliferous plants. These are called lixos by 

 Olivier. Many of the short snouted weevils are 

 ornamented with the most brilliant colours, as 

 their specific names denote: such as the c. impe- 

 rialis, or diamond beetle (n g3), the splendid 

 (n 04), the chrysis (n 96), the regalis (n os 1 01 and 

 102), etc. This last, with gold coloured patches 

 on a bluish green ground, is so brilliant that some 

 persons use it for ornament instead of precious 

 stones. The male of the curculio (ni6) has the 

 snout covered with down. The larvae of the 

 bostrichiy Geoff., feed on the woody parts of 

 trees. One of these, the destructor (n 1 1), par- 

 ticularly attacks the elm, and forms diverging 

 furrows under the bark; the curculio (n 160) 

 and several analogous species do much injury to 

 the resinous trees. 



The third and last division amongst the coleop- 

 tera is composed of insects having three joints to 

 their tarsi. They are almost all small spotted 

 hemispherical insects, known by the vulgar name 

 of lady-birds , and which naturalists have named 

 coccinella. The most common is the seven-spotted 

 lady-bird (c. septempunctata) , n 10. The collec- 

 tion of coleoptera which we have examined is 

 contained in twenty-five frames; the three last 

 of which exhibit their several metamorphoses. 



