CHAPTER II. 



COLEOPTERA. 



Beetles. — Scarab/Eians. — Ground-Beetles. — Tree-Beetles. — Cock- 

 chafers OR May-Beetles. — Flower-Beetles. • — Stag-Beetles. — Bf- 

 PRESTiANS, OR Saw-hokned Borers. — Spking-Beetles. — Timber-Beetles. 

 — Weevils. — Cylindrical Bark-Beetles. — Capricukn-Beetles. or 



LoNG-HORNED BOREKS. LeAF-BkETLES. — CrIOCERIANS. — LeAF-M1NIN« 



Beetles. — ■ Toktoise-Beetles. — Chrysomel^ans. — Cakthauides. 



THE wings of beetles are covered and concealed by a pair 

 of -horny cases or shells, meeting in a straight line on 

 the top of the back, and usually having a little triangular or 

 semicircular piece, called the scutel, wedged between their 

 ba&es. Hence the order to which these insects belong is 

 called CoLEOPTERA, a word signifying wings in a sheath. 

 Beetles* are biting-insects, and are provided with two pairs 

 of jaws moving sidewise. Their young are grubs, and un- 

 dergo a complete transformation in coming to maturity. 



At the head of this order Linnaeus placed a group of 

 insects, to which he gave the name of Scaeab^us. It 

 includes the largest and most robust animals of the beetle 

 kind, many of them remarkable for the singularity of their 

 shape, and the formidable horn-like prominences with which 

 they are furnished, — together with others, which, though 

 they do not present the same imposing appearance, require 

 to be noticed, on account of the injury sustained by vegeta- 

 tion from their attacks. An immense number of Scaraba'- 

 ians (Scaeab^iDje), as they may be calked, are now known, 

 differing greatly from each other, not only in structure, but 



* Beetle, in old English, bell, byil, or bilel, means a biter, or insect that bites. 



