686 



The Living Animals of the World 



rhoto by L. 11. Joutcl] 



IScw York. 



HARLEQUIN BEETLE. 

 Notice the enormous length of the front legs. 



One of the largest and 

 most famous of these in- 

 sects is the Diamond- 

 beetle of Brazil, the scales 

 from whose wing-cases are 

 so frequently mounted as 

 microscopic objects. When 

 viewed through a good 

 instrument under a power- 

 ful light, the beauty of 

 these scales is simply in- 

 describable. All that one 

 can say of them is that 

 they seem to be composed 

 of diamonds, rubies, 



topazes, and emeralds 

 massed together in rich 

 profusion, while diamonds 

 are transformed into rubies, 

 rubies into topazes, and 

 topazes into emeralds at 

 every change of light. 

 The OsiKK-WEEViL, a 



black-and-white species about three-eighths of an inch long, is found on osiers in Great Britain, 

 the grub boring galleries in the stems, and often causing considerable damage. The well-known 

 CoRN-WEEViL is still more destructive in granaries, the walls of which are often completely 

 blackened by its crawling multitudes. The grub lives inside the grain, eating out the whole 

 of the interior, and a single pair of the weevils are said to be capable of producing a family of 

 more than 6,000 individuals in the course of a single season. The Rice-wee\'IL is equally 

 destructive to rice, and may be recognised by the two red spots on each wing-case. 



The famous " Gru-GRU " of the West Indies, which is regarded as so great a dainty both 

 by the negroes and by many of the white colonists, is the grub of the Palm-weevil. It 

 lives in the stems of palm-trees, and also in those of sugar-canes, causing a great deal of 

 mischief by its burrowings. When fully fed, it constructs a cocoon by tearing off strips of 

 bark and weaving them neatly together. The Sugar-weevil is still more troublesome, feeding 

 upon the juice of the sugar-cane^ and affecting the entire plant in sucli a manner that sugar 



can no longer be manufactured from it. 



"Bad" nuts are also due to one of 

 these insects, the common Nut-weevil, which 

 introduces its egg into the kernel during 

 the earlier stages of its development. When 

 the grub hatches, it proceeds to devour the 

 kernel, leaving a quantity of bad-flavoured 

 "frass" behind it, while the shell is left 

 untouched until tlie perfect insect emerges. 

 An allied species attacks acorns in a similar 

 manner. 



Among the finest and largest of all 



beetles are many of those belonging to 



riMiohiij. EdimnU] [Coiabonw. the great Long-horn group, of which the 



ju.MPiNG-BEETLE, ALLIED TO THE TURNIP-FLEA coiiimon BRITISH M^SK-iiEETLE is a familiar 



It is ahout one-tenth of an inch in. len.rth. example. This insect owBS botli its popular 



