THE BEETLE. 



547 



which they lay an egg. These pellets, in 

 September, they convey three feet deep in the 

 earth, where they lie till the approach of 

 spring; when the eggs are hatched the nests 

 burst, and the insects find their way out of 

 the earth. They assist each other with inde- 

 fatigable industry, in rolling these globular 

 pellets to the place where they are to be buried. 

 This they are to perform with the tail fore- 

 most, by raising up their hinder part, and 

 shoving along the ball with their hind-feet. 

 They are always accompanied with other 

 beetles of a larger size, and of a more elegant 

 structure and colour. The breast of this is 

 covered with a shield of a crimson colour, and 

 shining like metal ; the head is of the like co- 

 lour, mixed with green, and on the crown of 

 the head stands a shining black horn, bended 

 backwards. These are called the kings of the 

 beetles; but for what reason is uncertain, since 

 they partake of the same dirty drudgery with 

 the rest. 1 



1 The scientific name for beetles is Coleoptera. They 

 are readily distinguished, (says Mr Duncan, in the Natur- 

 alist's Library,) from other insect?, by having the inferior 

 wings covered and protected by a hard case or shell. This 

 peculiarity of structure has suggested the name, which 

 is composed of two Greek words, and signifies wings in 

 a sheath (e\ia;, a sheath, and -rnoa,, wings}. The 

 term was first used by Aristotle, and as the character to 

 which it refers forms a very obvious mark of distinction, 

 it has been almost universally adopted by subsequent 

 writers. In several instances, however, it fails to be an 

 accurate definition of the order, for there are some beetles 

 without either wings or sheath, and many others in which 

 the latter only is present. To the other characters more re- 

 cently added, such as the transverse folding of the wings,and 

 the straight sutural line down the middle of the wingcases, 

 separating them into two equal portions, there are likewise 

 exceptions; but these are too fewand unimportant to inva- 

 lidate materially the general correctness of thn definition. 

 The insects to which these characters apply, constitute 

 one of the most numerous orders of their class. In this 

 countiy alone, they amount, by the latest and most ac- 

 curate census, to upwards of 3600, thus forming nearly 

 a third part of our entire insect population. This is con- 

 siderably more than double the number of phanogamous 

 or flowering plants indigenous to Britain, and greatly ex- 

 ceeds the whole amount of our native vertebrate animals. 

 When compared with the two other orders that are next 

 to it in extent in this country, it will be found that the 

 Coleoptera are nearlyone half more numerous than the Le- 

 pidoptera, and that they stand much in the same relation to 

 the Diptera or two winged flies. Of the latter, indeed, all 

 the species ascertained to inhabit Europe scarcely exceed 

 the amount of British Coleoptera ; for the most accurate en- 

 umeration of the European Diptera which we possess makes 

 them about 3760. The native Coleoptera of Sweden, ac- 

 cording to the enumeration of them given by Gyllenhal, in 

 his admirable Insecta Suecica, are about 4700 in number. 

 In advancing southwards, these insects increase in a ratio 

 similar to what is observed in other departments of na- 

 ture ; and in countries under the tropics, so redundant in 

 every kind of animal life, they may be said absolutely to 

 swarm. We are without sufficient data, however, from 

 which to form an accurate estimate of their total amount. 

 Some years since, the collection of the Count de Jean at 

 Paris, one of the most extensive that exists, contained 

 110 fewer than 20,000 species. Many others are no doubt 



The Elephant-Beetle is the largest of this 

 kind hitherto known, and is found in South 

 America, particularly Guiana and Surinam, 

 as well as about the river Oroonoko. It is of 



to be found in different collections ; and when we take 

 into account the discoveries daily made by the numerous 

 cultivators of this branch of zoology, and the extent and 

 fertility of the countries with the insect productions of 

 which we are wholly unacquainted, there seems reason 

 to believe that it cannot be much short of 30,000 that 

 is, 10,000 above the estimate formed by Ray nearly a 

 century and a half ago, as the probable amount of the 

 whole class of insects ! 



This order comprehends some of the largest as well as 

 the most minute insects with which we are acquainted. 

 Certain orthopterous species belonging to the genus 

 Phasma surpass them in length, and several gigantic 

 moths are of greater superficial extent ; but in many 

 beetles length of body is combined with a proportionate 

 breadth and thickness, which renders them the most 

 bulky and massive of their class. A fine specimen of 

 Prionus giganteus measures nearly half a foot in length, 

 the breadth is about two inches, and the expansion of the 

 wings is nine inches. A handsome and scarce species^ 

 of the same family (Prionus armillatus) is about five 

 inches long and one inch and three quarters broad, and 

 the antennae, which are very strong and rigid, are up- 

 wards of six inches in length. The Hercules beetle 

 (Dynastes Hercules'), and Scarabseus Actaeon, measure 

 respectively about four and a half inches in length in- 

 cluding the horns. The largest coleopterous insects in- 

 habiting Britain are the Hydrous piceus, and the Stag- 

 beetle (Lucanus cervus). The latter is nearly two inches 

 in length, including the mandibles ; and the former is 

 not much short of the same dimensions, besides being of 

 considerably greater breadth. These may be regarded 

 as the giants of this order of insects, occupying one ex- 

 tremity of the scale. At the opposite extremity may be 

 placed some species of the genera Trichopteryx, Ato- 

 maria, and Agathidium, which are so minute as not to 

 exceed one-eighth part of a line in length;* or, to adopt 

 an illustration sometimes employed, they are absolutely 

 not bigger than the full stop that closes this period. 



The structure of these minute beings is perhaps even 

 more calculated to excite our admiration than that of the 

 larger animals. In the latter, most of the parts are of 

 sufficient size to come within the direct cognisance of 

 our senses, and there is no apparent discrepancy be- 

 tween their dimensions and the functions which they per- 

 form ; but when we reflect that a mere animated pointi 

 almost invisible to the naked eye, possesses all the at- 

 tributes which belong to the largest of its race that ii 

 is furnished with an external covering made up of many 

 parts adjusted to each other with the nicest accuracy 

 that it is supplied with all the requisite organs of sense 

 and motion, and has a nervous and respiratory system of 

 greater complexity than many of the larger animals 

 that the various processes of digestion, assimilation, and 

 secretion, are continually going forward that not a limb 

 can be put in motion without calling into play a multi- 

 tude of muscles and that this atomic being is more- 

 over endowed with instincts which regulate with almost 

 unerring certainty all its habits and economy we can 

 scarcely fail to regard it as affording a more striking in- 

 stance of consummate skill than if it had occupied a much 

 larger space. 



" The shapely limb, and lubricated joint, 

 Within the small dimensions of a point, 

 Muscle and nerve miraculously spun, 

 His mighty work, who speaks and it is done i 

 The invisible in things scarce seen revealed. 

 To whom an atom is an ample field." 



* A line is the twelfth part of a French inch. 



