COLEOPTERA. 441 



twelvemonth ; a few months in the caterpillar state, a whole winter in 

 the chrysalis, and a few months in the moth state. Such is the case 

 with the privet-moth [Sphinx Ligustri~\, large hawk-moth [ Acherontia 

 atropos]. 



Third Mode. — This is where the eggs are laid in the beginning of 

 summer, as in the second; but are continued to be laid for several 

 months in that season : they hatch in the same season ; go through 

 their several stages pretty quickly, as the first do ; but do not propagate 

 the first season : they go into winter quarters, and propagate in the 

 summer following through the whole season and die in the autumn, as 

 their parents did. Such I believe is the case with the common fly ; and 

 is certainly the case with all the bee-tribe, excepting the common bee. 

 In this third class, I apprehend only the females live through the 

 winter, the males dying in the autumn. How far the female, in the 

 common bee, after breeding, is an exception to this rule, I do not yet 

 know. 



Insects, such as the dragon-fly, gnat, <fcc, whose first life is in the 

 water, and which undergo their change i,n this element, do not go into 

 the chrysalis state, but change almost immediately. This is because a 

 chrysalis could not remain under water without change of air, and as 

 a chrysalis has no motion it could not have this change. 



[Order Coleoptera.] 



A beetle has no increase of canal which can properly be called a 

 stomach. The oesophagus is extremely small in the head, but soon 

 becomes larger and forms the ' stomach.' The oesophagus, stomach, 

 and intestines are one canal ; the two last of equal size throughout their 

 whole length. From the mouth it is straight till it gets into the belly, 

 and may be called oesophagus; it then becomes considerably convo- 

 luted ; and near to the anus it is again straight. The whole intestine 

 appears to have a spiral valve running through it. One would natu- 

 rally suppose that digestion goes on everywhere in this canal. A little 

 way from the anus is a small stricture, and then the gut, in many 

 [beetles], is a little larger, although not in all. At this stricture open 

 some canals, to be hereafter described. The rectum has longitudinal 

 rugae. The anus and oviducts are capable of being pushed out, or can 

 be projected some way beyond the body of the animal, for which motion 

 they are loosely connected to the external covering of the animal by a 

 thin membrane, which, when the parts are drawn in, forms a kind of 

 prepuce or capsule. The contents of the intestine are a slimy mucus 

 of deep greenish yellow, as if mixed with a great deal of bile. Three 

 or four small canals or tubes lie loose in the cavity of the abdomen, as 



