Dyticus maryinalis. 



CHAPTER V. 

 COLEOPTERA, OR BEETLES. 



SHAKSPERE, in his mention of the "Shard-borne 

 Beetle/' indicates pretty distinctly, although giving it 

 a false signification, the most striking general cha- 

 racter of the almost innumerable insects which con- 

 stitute the order Coleoptera*. In most of these, in 

 fact, the fore-wings are converted into a pair of horny 

 organs, the " shards " of the poet, the elytra or wing- 

 cases of the entomologist, beneath which the large, 

 membranous, hinder wings, the true organs of flight, 

 are found folded up in a very small compass, and 

 packed comfortably and securely away upon the 

 upper surface of the abdomen. 



Besides the elytra, the skin of a Beetle is usually of 

 a perfectly horny texture, so that the insect is clothed 



* Gr. koleos, a sheath, pteron, a wing. 



