IN LEAFY JUNE. 



183 



Coptocycla Mcolor ; it is scarcely over a quarter of 

 an inch long, and is usually hidden on the under 

 part of the leaf. But once with the beautiful beetle 

 in our hand and under the magic magnifying glass, 

 we realize that we have captured a tiny gem of Na- 

 ture which has no equal in the jeweler's window on 

 Broadway. His shell is resplendent gold, but in a 

 few moments it has become milky and appears more 

 like a yellowish opal ; then it changes to a greenish 

 yellowish white, and finally, when we 

 look at it again, it is pale rusty 

 gold. But this remarkable 

 gem of a beetle is beau- 

 tiful only in life ; when 

 he dies his color van- 

 ishes. 



Another splen- 

 did and common 

 golden bug is the 

 goldsmith beetle {Cotalpa Icuiigern)^ which still 

 later in the season we may succeed in capturing on 

 the under side of a willow leaf ; he is about seven 

 eighths of an inch long. This beetle is abroad at 

 night and sometimes ventures in an open door, lured 

 by the brilliant lamplight within ; but in daytime 

 he hides himself completely among the clusters of 

 fresh green leaves at the tips of young branchlets. 



Goldsmith Beetle, 



