THE COLEOPTERA FROM A PRACTICAL POINT OF VIEW. L'9 
standard applies only when speaking of any one group of beetles as 
compared with the Coleoptera generally. The same expressions will 
necessarily vary in force when applied to the species of a particular 
group as compared with each other, accordingly as the species of that 
group are large, or small as compared with the rest of the order; that 
is to say, a small species of a group of generally large-sized insects 
may be larger than a large species of a small-sized group. 
LARV-Ai AND PUPAE. 
The larval of the Coleoptera are usually soft whitish grubs; naked, or 
with a few scattered hairs ; with a mandibulate mouth not very unlike 
that of the perfect insects; usually furnished with six short feet and a 
single terminal proleg, but sometimes wholly footless. They live in se- 
cluded situations, sometimes in the ground, but ofteuer in the wood oj 
under the bark of decaying trees, or in putrescent animal substances, 
and not unfrequently in nuts and seeds, and in the pulp of fruits. They 
aie larely found exposed to the light of day, and therefore they never 
exhibit the beauty of coloration, nor the variety of clothing which gives 
so much interest to the study of the caterpillars, which are the larv;e 
of the moths and butterflies. The larvae of most of the families of 
Coleoptera are now pretty well known, but owing to the circum- 
stances just mentioned, they have generally received but little atten- 
tion from entomologists compared with that which has been bestowed 
upon the perfect insects. The larvae of the several families will be 
more particularly described in their proper connections. 
The pupal arc rarely inclosed in cocoons, but the larvae, before chang- 
ing, simply form cells by turning themselves round and round in the 
earth or rotten wood, in which they usually undergo their metamor- 
phoses. But some larvae, especially in the families of Curculionidm and 
Chrysomelidae, construct regular cocoons of web, not very unlike those 
of the nocturnal Lepidoptera, which they attach to the plants upon 
which they feed. The legs of the pupae are always free, but they are 
not used, the insects being dormant and motionless during this stage of 
their existence. 
THE COLEOPTERA FROM A PRACTICAL POINT OF VIEW. 
In order to show more clearly the connection between scientific and 
practical entomology, in classifying the Coleoptera we have taken the 
food-habits of the several species as the basis of classification, it being- 
in the nature of their food, and their methods of obtaining it, that in- 
sects come into the most important relationship to mankind, whether 
of an injurious or a beneficial character. We refer to the Coleoptera 
particularly, because they exhibit a much greater diversity of food- 
