NUMERICAL EXTENT OP THE COLEOPTERA. 1Q3 



deration, begins to throw up his elytra, expands his 

 wings, and slowly and steadily mounts into the air. Some 

 few, indeed, of the predaceous tribe, particularly the 

 Cicindelida, increase the natural speed of their course 

 by alternately flying and running ; while others, slow in 

 their motions, counterfeit death, and seem to fall to the 

 ground : this latter, however, is usually but a second 

 deception ; for these crafty little creatures generally con- 

 trive, by means of their hooked claws, to grasp hold of 

 a leaf, or spray, in their fall, and thus save themselves 

 the toil of again ascending to their former station, when 

 the cause of alarm has subsided : these latter habits be- 

 long to the greatest part of the Curculionidfs y or snout 

 beetles a family containing several thousands of species. 

 All these circumstances, connected with the use of the 

 feet, lead us to infer that the Coleoptera, as a whole, is 

 the most ambulating among the Ptilota, and hence pe- 

 culiarly deserve the name of terrestrial insects. 



(167.) The beetles are, perhaps, the most numerous 

 of all the orders, M. Latreille expresses an opinion, that 

 there are probably not fewer than twenty-five thousand 

 already existing in European cabinets ; and this number, 

 great as it is, is perhaps not more than one third, or at 

 most one half, of those yet to be discovered. When we 

 consider that each species of this immense assemblage 

 has its own peculiar economy, and its especial task to 

 perform, in the great scheme of creation, the mind is 

 scarcely able to conceive how the form and structure of 

 fifty thousand beetles can be so varied, that no two are 

 alike ; still more impossible is it to imagine those deli- 

 cate shades of difference in their habits and economy, 

 which experience has shown invariably to accompany a 

 difference of species. We should remember, also, that 

 this vast multitude all belong but to one order of insects ; 

 which order forms but a small portion of the countless 

 myriads of animated beings, which live and move, and 

 do the work of HIM who made them. The astonishing 

 variety of differently formed creatures which swarm 

 o 



