CHAPTEE II. 
COLEOPTERA. 
Beetles. — ScARABiEiANS. — Ground-Beetles. — Tree-Beetles. — Cock¬ 
chafers OR May-Beetles.— Flower-Beetles.— Stag-Beetles.— Bu- 
PRESTIANS, OR Saw-hokxed Boreks. — Spking-Beetles.— TiM ber-Beetles. 
— Weevils.— Cylindrical Bark-Beetles. — Capricorn-Beetles, or 
Long-horned Borers. — Leaf-Beetles. — Criocerians. — Leaf-mining 
Beetles. — Tortoise-Beetles. — Chrysomelians. — Cantharides. 
\ 
T he wings of beetles are covered and concealed by a pair 
of horny cases or shells, meeting in a straight line on 
the top of the back, and usually having a little triangular or 
semicircular piece, called the scutel, wedged between their 
bases. Hence the order to which these insects belono- is 
called CoLEOPTERA, a Avord sio:nifvino: Avincys in a sheath. 
Beetles * are biting-insects, and are proAoded Avith tAvo pairs 
of jaAvs moAung sidcAAOse. Their young are grubs, and un¬ 
dergo a complete transformation in coming to maturity. 
At the head of this order Linnaeus placed a group of 
insects, to Avhich he gaA'e the name of Scarab.e:us. It 
includes the largest and most robust animals of the beetle 
kind, many of them remarkable for the singularity of their 
shape, and the formidable horn-like prominences Avith Avhich 
they are furnished, — together Avith others, Avhich, though 
they do not present the same imposing appearance, require 
to be noticed, on account of the injuiw sustained by vegeta¬ 
tion from their attacks. An immense number of Scarabae- 
ians (Scaraba:idje), as they may be called, are noAV known, 
differing greatly from each other, not only in structure, but 
* Beetle, in old English, betl^ byil, or Mtel^ means a biter, or insect that bites. 
