254 INSECT SCULPTURE. 



size, comparatively simple form, and temporary purpose, insect 

 egg-shells, though they cannot be called an inferior, may cer- 

 tainly be looked on as a minor, or a mere preparatory produc- 

 tion of that beautiful department of animated nature to which 

 they belong. We have seen, nevertheless, how that these are 

 made subjects of ornament, either express or subservient to 

 adaptive design ; and it strikes us as curious that sculpture, the 

 species of decoration so commonly bestowed on these coverings 

 of life, should occur but rarely on the living forms which issue 

 from them, till we come to those members of the insect race of 

 all the most perfect, permanent, and elaborately finished the 

 insects, namely, which compose the Coleopterous order. Here, 

 on the wing-cases of various beetles, on their enamelled and 

 metallic plating, we find again the delicate workmanship which 

 resembles that of the chisel and the graver, and even discern, 

 repeated in numerous instances, the ribbings indented or em- 

 bossed, the raised dottings or the punctures which serve to 

 render an insect egg-shell so elegant a microscopic object. 



A familiar example of this sculptured ornament is furnished 

 in the ribbings on the wing-cases and punctures on the thorax 

 of the common dor or clock-beetle, also in various Cardbi.* 

 The elytra of some of the larger brown weevils, besides being 

 ribbed, are roughened by raised dots ; and in the brassy green 

 wing-cases of some of the DonacicE, a beautiful tribe of beetles 



* Especially in the Carabus daihratus, the wing-cases (elytra) of which exhibit 

 each three embossed lines and three rows of excavations. 



