INSECTS: THEIR FEET 139 



nose Beetle (Timarcha tenebricosa), a heavy-bodied fellow, 

 of a blue-black color, abundant in spring and summer on 

 hedge banks. You have doubtless often observed it, and 

 have been amused, perhaps, at seeing the drop of clear 

 scarlet fluid which exudes from its mouth when touched. 



The feet in this species are broad and well developed. 

 You may see with the naked eye, on turning it up, that 

 its dilated joints are covered on the under surface with a 

 velvety cushion of a rusty-brown color; and here, under 

 a low power of the microscope with the Lieberkuhn, you 

 can resolve the nature of the velvet. 



The foot, or tarsus, as it is technically called, is com- 

 posed of four very distinct pieces; of which the first is 

 semicircular, the second crescent-shaped, the third heart- 

 shaped, and the fourth nearly oval. The last is rounded 

 on all sides, has no cushioned sole, and carries two stout 

 hooks. The first three are flat or even, hollowed beneath 

 into soles, something like the hoof of a horse, and the 

 whole interior bristles with close- set minute points, the 

 tips of which terminate at the same level and form a vel- 

 vety surface. Now these points are the whitish bulbous 

 extremities exactly answerable to those of the palms of the 

 fly, and doubtless they answer the very same purpose. 

 Only here they are set in far closer array and are a hun- 

 dred times more numerous; whence we may reasonably 

 presume a higher power of adhesion to be possessed by 

 the beetle. The structure is best seen -in the male, which 

 may be distinguished by its smaller dimensions, and by its 

 broader feet. 



A still better example of a sucking foot is this of the 

 Dyticus marginalis. It is the great flat oval beetle, which 

 is fond of coming up to the surface of ponds, and hanging 



