COLEOPTERA 



FOR 



BEGINNEES. 



INTEODUCTION. 



THE term Coleoptera is applied to that order of insects which includes 

 the beetles, and is derived from two Greek words signifying " sheath- 

 winged," from the character of the organs of flight in the great majority of 

 these insects. The wings, as in many other insects, the butterflies and 

 moths, bees, dragon-flies, for instance, are four in number ; but while the 

 two hinder ones only are fitted for serial locomotion, the two anterior or front 

 ones are converted into horny or leathery sheaths, which, meeting down the 

 middle of the back in a straight seam (known as the suture) serve to protect 

 the true wings, which are beautifully folded and packed away beneath them. 

 The fact of the two elytra (each of these wing-cases is known as an elytron, 

 plural elytra), meeting in a straight suture is emphasised, because this is a 

 point in the structure of beetles that separates them from other insects which 

 resemble them in having horny wing-covers, the cock-roaches and crickets 

 (order Orthoptera) y the ear- wigs (order Dermaptera), and the plant and water 

 bugs (order ffemiptera) f in all of which the wing-cases overlap through a 

 greater or less extent of their inner margins, In a very few instances the 

 elytra of beetles slightly overlap, as in the oil-beetles (genus Melee) ; in a few 

 the female sex is nearly or quite destitute of either elytra or true wings, the 

 female glow-worm (Lampyris noctiluca) being a notable example ; in a very 

 much larger number the true wings are quite absent or rudimentary, and the 

 two elytra are often, in these cases, soldered together at the suture. This 

 apterous (wingless) condition is characteristic of many large genera, such as 

 the Carabi and Calathi among the predacious land beetles ; and it is often 



