CHAP. XV. FAMILIES OF COLEOPTERA. 91 



Many kinds of flies have the antemial style either pectinate 

 or plumose, such as the Blow-flies, Flesh-flies, House-flies, 

 Stable-flies, etc. The larvae live in various substances, as in 

 excrements, in decayed animal or vegetable matter, in galls 

 on plants, or in the roots, stems, or leaves of plants, in fruit, 

 etc., and are, therefore, to be mostly regarded as injurious. 

 One species, however, the Anthomyia calopteni, is eminently 

 beneficial, as it feeds upon the eggs of those grasshoppers or 

 locusts which deposit their eggs in the ground. 



The Flesh-flies (Fig. 22) bring forth their young alive. One 

 of this species of flies has been bred from a wasp's nest which 

 was filled with dead spiders, in the body of which the parent- 

 fly had laid its eggs. 



CHAPTER XV. 

 FAMILIES OF COLEOPTERA. (Beetles.) 



The insects belonging to this Order . are divided into four 

 Classes, according to the number of joints* in their feet; 

 these Classes are as follows : 



Fig. 237. Fig. 238. 



* By the term "joint" is meant the node or part between two- joints, i-i this sense 

 the part of our arm between the joints of the elbow and wrist would be called a joint 

 The joints of the foot (<arsws)are numbered from the shin (tibia' outwards; thus the 

 joint next the shin is the first joint, the one next to this is the second, etc. 



