WEE VILS. LADY-BUGS. 37 



the property of producing a blister. The species employed in 

 medicine is the Cantharis vesicatoria, commonly called the 

 Spanish fy. The body is about half an^ inch in length, and 

 the elytra are long, flexible, and of a brilliant golden green 

 colour ; it is very common in Spain, Italy, France, and Russia, 

 where it lives in great numbers, on the ash, the lily, privet, &c. 

 The potatoe fy, Cantharis vitata, is an American species, which 

 possesses qualities similar to the European. 



COLEOPTEROUS TETRAME'RANS. 



24. Among the Coleopterous Tetrame'rans we place Weevils, 

 which may be readily recognised by having a head elongated in 

 a kind of snout or trunk, upon which are placed the antennas. 

 These insects are gnawers and feed on vegetable substances ; the 

 larvae, which are without legs, frequently cause a great deal of 

 damage by attacking wheat. 



" Would it be believed," says Wilson, the ornithologist, " that the larvre 

 of an insect, or fly, no larger than a grain of rice, should, silently, and in 

 one season, destroy some thousand acres of pine trees, many of them two 

 or three feet in diameter, and one hundred and fifty feet high. Yet, who- 

 ever passes along the high road from Georgetown to Charleston, in South 

 Carolina, about twenty miles from the former place, can have striking and 

 melancholy proofs of the fact. In some places, the whole woods, as far as 

 you can see around you, are dead, stripped of the bark, their wintry look- 

 ing arms and bare trunks bleaching in the sun and tumbling in ruins before 

 every blast, presenting a frightful picture of desolation. Until some effec- 

 tual preventive or more complete remedy can be devised against these 

 insects and their larvae, I would humbly suggest the propriety of protecting, 

 and receiving with proper feelings of gratitude, the services of this and the 

 whole tribe of woodpeckers, letting the odium of guilt rest on its proper 

 owners." 



COLEOPTEROUS TRIME'RAJfS. 



25. As an example of Coleopterous Trime'rans, we mention 

 the lady-bug Coccin'ella (from the Latin, coccinus, crimson) 

 so common in our gardens. These beetles are of great service 

 to the agriculturist, and especially to the hop-grower ; for they 

 destroy the plant-lice (aphides), in vast numbers feeding on them 

 both in the larva and perfect state. 



' ORDER OF ORTHOP'TERA. 



26. Insects of the order of Orthop'tera (from the Greek, 

 orthos, straight, and pteron, wing) are distinguished, 



1st. By having the mouth armed with mandibles and maxillae 

 arranged for mastication. 



24. How are Weevils characterized? 



25. To what division of the Coleop'tera does the lady-bug belong ? 



26. How is the order of Orthop'tera distinguished ? 



4 



