OF BEETLES. 93 



There is a small long wasp, which is not a small common one; for in 

 one of these, in the beginning of June, I found eggs fit for laying ; 

 therefore she must have been a queen. 



Lord Gage informed me of a gentleman who, eating an apricot, was 

 stung in the tongue by a wasp. That a gentleman present immediately 

 applied a piece of onion to it, then another ; and after three or four 

 applications the part did not swell, nor was it painful \ 



Economy of Beetles. 



Of the Beetle-tribe \_Coleo-pterd], — The beetle differs from other flying 

 insects in several particulars. A beetle is very strong in the legs ; it is 

 difficult to confine them in the hand, and I imagine the intention .of 

 this is, because they burrow. I imagine also that, because they burrow, 

 they have two moveable scales like wings [elytra], which cover the true 

 wings, and guard them in the act of burrowing. 



The abdominal viscera adhere only to the under scales, not to the 

 upper ; which renders the viscera loose after the under scales are re- 

 moved, being only then attached to the thorax, at its upper parts ; 

 however, there is a thin membrane which covers the upper surface of 

 the viscera, to which the viscera are attached. 



Beetles I imagine do not feed upon the wing ; and, as they do not, 

 their powers of flight are not equal to many of the flying insect tribe. 



A maggot-beetle I believe does not spin a web over itself when it 

 goes into the chrysalis state. 



Of the May -Chafer, or Black-Beetle [Geotrupes stercorarius]. — In 

 the month of June the young ones are found in their maggot-state, in 

 their nests, pretty far advanced, going almost to change into the chry- 

 salis. These nests are in the ground, and generally grass-ground 

 where there is cow-dung, and mostly under the place where the dung 

 lies. They are about twelve or eighteen inches deep. There is but one 

 young one in each cell : its maggot- coat is becoming very loose about 

 it, and about the latter end of the same month they would appear not 

 to be much further advanced. In the month of July they throw off 

 their maggot-coat, and become chrysalis. "Whether they change their 

 coat in the maggot-state I know not. 



Their nests are in clusters, three, four, five, six, or more, close 

 together. Most probably these belong to one or two female beetles, as 



1 [Cake indigo, wetted and rubbed on the part stung, has the same effect. Tins 

 application is universally resorted to in Epping Forest, where wasps are plentiful. 

 — Wm, Clift.] 



