COLEOPTEROUS INSECTS. S5 
of many of these might, for aught we know, have 
been equally well performed had there been.no such 
marked dissimilarity. 
The colouring and variegation of coleopterous 
insects are not less remarkable than their forms. 
In the variety and beauty of their hues, they seem 
to combine the clearness and decision of tint pos- 
sessed by flowers, with the diversified markings of 
the feathered race, and the metallic splendour of 
the mineral kingdom. “In this tribe,” says an 
author, determined that his language shall not fall 
short of his subject, “ lavish nature sports gorge- 
ously in the mingled riches of indescribably reful- 
gent colours, proof against a continuance of the 
visual ray, which makes the eyelids dance, while 
the optic nerve aches at the splendour.”* “ Na- 
ture in her sportive mood,” say Messrs Kirby and 
Spence, speaking, it is true, of insects in general, 
but all their observations apply to beetles, “ when 
painting them, sometimes imitates the clouds of 
heaven ; at others, the meandering course of the 
rivers of the earth, or the undulations of th^ir 
waters : many are veined like beautiful marbles ; 
others have the semblance of a. robe of the finest 
net-work thrown over them : some she blazons with 
heraldic insignia, giving them to bear infields sable — 
azure — vert — gules — argent and or, fesses — bars — 
bends— crosses — -crescents — stars, and even ani- 
* Barbut’s Gen. of Insects, p. 4G. 
