THE LEAF-BEETLES. 
117 
their forms, but they have the same habits ; living in the 
centre of stems, and devouring the pith. 
The insects that have passed under consideration in the 
foregoing part of this treatise spend by far the greater por¬ 
tion of their lives, namely, that wherein they are larvae only, 
in obscurity, buried in the ground, or concealed within the 
roots, the stems, or the seeds of plants, where they perform 
their appointed tasks unnoticed and unknown. Thus the 
work of destruction goes secretly and silently on, till it be¬ 
comes manifest by its melancholy consequences ; and too late 
we discover the hidden foes that have disappointed the hopes 
of the husbandman, and ruined those spontaneous produc¬ 
tions of the soil that constitute so important a source of our 
comfort and prosperity. 
There still remain several groups of beetles to be described, 
consisting almost entirely of insects that spend the whole, or 
the principal part, of their lives upon the leaves of plants, 
and which, as they derive their nourishment, both in the 
larva and adult states, from leaves alone, may be called leaf- 
beetles, or, as they have recently been named, phyllophagous, 
that is, leaf-eating insects. When, as in certain seasons, they 
appear in considerable numbers, they do not a little injury 
to vegetation, and, being generally exposed to view on the 
leaves that they devour, they soon attract attention. But 
the power possessed by most plants of renewing their foli¬ 
age, enables them soon to recover from the attacks of these 
devourers ; and the injury sustained, unless often repeated, 
is rarely attended by the ruinous consequences that follow 
the hidden and unsuspected ravages of those insects that sap 
vegetation in its most vital parts. Moreover, the leaf-eaters 
are more within our reach, and it is not so difficult to destroy 
them,* and protect plants from their depredations. The leaf- 
beetles are generally distinguished by the want of a snout, by 
their short legs and broad cushioned feet, and their antennae 
of moderate length, often thickened a little towards the end, 
or not distinctly tapering. Some of them have an oblong 
