190 EVENINGS AT THE MICROSCOPE 



shell-fruits through their envelopes, for the reception of 



There is a very extensive family of Beetles known as 

 LcLmellicornes, because the antennal joints are singularly 

 flattened and applied one over the other like the leaves 

 of a book (lamella, a leaf). Here is a very common little 

 Chafer found on the droppings in pasture (Aphodius fimeta- 

 rius), in which the last three joints, constituting the club of 

 the antenna, are of an ovate form, and flattened, so as to 

 lie one on another quite close, like three oval cakes: and 



ANTENNA OF COCKCHAFER. 



being connected only at one end of the long axis, they 

 open and shut at the pleasure of the animal, like a long 

 pocket memorandum-book of three leaves. 



But this structure is seen to still greater advantage in 

 the much larger Cockchafer, so abundant in May in some 

 seasons. For here the joints composing the club are much 

 more numerous (seven in the male, six in the female), and 

 they are proportionally longer and thinner, and therefore 

 more leaf-like. The insect widely expands them, evidently 

 to receive impressions from the atmosphere; when alarmed, 

 they are closed and withdrawn beneath the shield of the 



