Irish Insects. 17 



the acuteness and penetration of his intellect, and such his skill 

 in identifying obscure and difficult species, that, had he con- 

 tinued to devote himself to the study of our native coleoptera, 

 a most complete and exhaustive list would have been compiled. 

 Unfortunately, the few lists that have been published repre- 

 sent almost all our knowledge of our native beetles up to 

 the present, with the exception of a few species taken by 

 visitors, such as the late Dr. Power, Mr. Champion, and 

 Mr. J. J. Walker, R.N. The lecturer has for the past five years 

 devoted most of his spare time to the collection and study of 

 our native coleoptera, and it was his desire that evening, by 

 giving some account of them, to induce some of the Belfast 

 entomologists and naturalists to take up the same pursuit. 



The question, " What are coleoptera ?" is a very natural 

 and proper one, and he would endeavour to answer it. The 

 term coleoptera means " sheath-winged." In butterflies and 

 moths all four wings are of the same substance, but in a beetle 

 the upper pair are of a horny consistency, and the lower pair 

 membranous. In many beetles the lower pair are not de- 

 veloped, or only in a rudimentary form. We must recollect 

 that we see the membranous wings only when the beetle 

 is flying ; when at rest they are folded under the hard 

 upper wings, which are called the elytra, and which thus 

 form a sheath for the lower pair. Beetles pass through the 

 same four stages as butterflies and moths — viz., egg, larva, pupa, 

 and perfect insect. As far as appearance goes, a beetle grub 

 might be easily mistaken by an inexperienced eye for that of a 

 moth, as both have soft and round bodies, so that in this stage 

 there is a certain sort of resemblance between the two orders ; 

 but in the next stage — that of the pupa — the resemblance 

 ceases, tor though the pupa of a beetle is motionless, like 

 that of a moth or butterfly, it is different in appearance. 



There are two insects often mistaken for beetles — viz., the 

 common earwig, and the black-beetle, or clock of our kitchen. 

 The cockroach, from being called " black beetle," is almost 

 always supposed to be a beetle, and he had often been offered 



