194 NATURAL ARRANGEMENT OF INSECTS. 



upon the earth, strikes the mind of every reflecting man ; 

 although the number of those which he has seen, are but 

 as a unit to the thousands which he has not seen. This 

 interminable diversity of differently formed agents seems,, 

 in part, to be explained by one of the fundamental laws 

 of nature, by which it is ordained that the same effect 

 shall be produced by different means and different 

 agents. This truth is too apparent to need illustration, 

 and a slight notice on the economy of the order will 

 confirm the fact. 



(168.) In regard to the food of the Coleoptera, we 

 find them devouring every thing each confining itself 

 to some peculiar substance ; but if there is any one de- 

 scription of nourishment more especially assigned to 

 beetles, it appears to be that derived from living and 

 decayed vegetable matter, but particularly such as is of a 

 hard and solid texture. The great family of Capricornes, 

 or Capricorn beetles, not only feed, in their grub state, on 

 the pith, fibres, and internal substance of trees, but 

 many actually saw off, with their strong jaws, the ex- 

 terior branches, as if to hasten the removal of the de- 

 caying tree. Thousands of a more puny race (Bostrichi}, 

 unable to penetrate the solid wood, take up then: resi- 

 dence in the bark, which they perforate in all directions, 

 so that the elements soon effect decomposition, or thus 

 prepare caverns of shelter for other tribes : many, again, 

 have a different office assigned them ; their business is 

 to loosen the external bark from the internal wood ; and, 

 accordingly, they are only found in such situations. 

 These habits, so essential to facilitate the removal of su- 

 perabundant vegetation, are almost peculiar to coleopte- 

 rous insects. But foliage is a more abundant nutriment 

 than wood ; and hence we find that thousands and tens 

 of thousands of the smaller tribes live entirely upon the 

 leaves of trees and plants. Flowers appear assigned 

 more particularly to the Hymenoptera, the Lepidoptera^ 

 and theDiptera; but several families of beetles are known 

 to partake of this delicate food, and their structure is 



