98 BEETLES, GRASSHOPPERS, ETC. 



be found in the degree of hardness possessed 

 by the wing-covering, and the manner in 

 which the two halves of it meet. Amongst 

 beetles the wing-covers, called elytra, are 

 usually hard and brittle, and the two halves 

 meet in a straight seam, or ' suture.' In 

 some of the exotic species these elytra are so 

 hard, that ornaments are made of them, and, 

 when placing specimens in a cabinet, it is 

 scarcely possible to thrust a pin through 

 them without first boring a hole for it. 

 Amongst the cockroaches, grasshoppers, and 

 their kindred, the wing-covers, called in this 

 group tegmina, are of a tough, leathery con- 

 sistence, and the halves, in place of meeting 

 in a straight seam, slightly overlap each 

 other. This latter point will be apparent on 

 comparing a tiger beetle with a cockroach. 

 For the scientific discrimination of the 

 Orders, many other points have to be defined, 

 but for my present purpose these two will 

 suffice. 



People talk of * the beetle ' as if there 

 were but one living creature so called. The 

 nursery rhyme about Cock Robin affords an 

 example of this manner of speech : ' I, says 



