470 DESCRIPTION OF THE MUSEUM. 



more particularly attack the composite and um- 

 belliferous plants. These are called lixce by 

 Olivier. Many of the short snouted weevils are 

 ornamented with the most brilliant colours, as 

 their specific names denote: such as the c. impe- 

 rialism or diamond beetle (n° 98), the splendid 

 (n° 94), the chrjsis (n° 96), the regalis (n os 101 and 

 102), etc. This last, with gold coloured patches 

 on a bluish green ground, is so brilliant that some 

 persons use it for ornament instead of precious 

 stones. The male of the curculio (n°i6) has the 

 snout covered with down. The larvae of the 

 bostrichiy Geoff., feed on the woody parts of 

 trees. One of these, the destructor (n° 11), par- 

 ticularly attacks the elm, and forms diverging 

 furrows under the bark; the curculio (n° 160) 

 and several analogous species do much injury to 

 the resinous trees. 



The third and last division amongst the coleop- 

 tera is composed of insects having three joints to 

 their tarsi. They are almost all small spotted 

 hemispherical insects, known by the vulgar name 

 of lady -birds, and which naturalists have named 

 coccinella. The most common is the seven-spotted 

 lady-bird {c. septempunctata), n° 10. The collec- 

 tion of coleoptera which we have examined is 

 contained in twenty-five frames; the three last 

 of which exhibit their several metamorphoses. 



