COLEOPTERA. 
M5 
Ceratorrhina sviitlii, male. 
tawny yellow and red, varied in many cases with black spots and bands, being the 
predominant colours throughout the family. They are found on the flowers and 
leaves of trees, and are sometimes seen in great 
abundance; and it is said that they secrete a 
nauseous liquid, which gives them immunity 
from the attacks of insectivorous animals. 
The Lampyridce are remarkable on account 
of the luminous properties possessed by nearly 
all the species. In these insects the head is 
small and, being retracted under the pronotum, 
generally invisible from above; the eyes are 
large, especially in the males, the mandibles 
small but sharply pointed, and the antennae come 
off close together from the front of the head. 
The phosphorescent organs are situated in the 
abdomen, their position being shown in most of 
the species by pale yellowish or whitish areas 
on the ventral surface of certain of the segments. 
These beetles are found in nearly all parts of the 
world, though most numerous perhaps in Tropical 
America. In Lampyris and certain other genera 
the females are frequently apterous. The female of 
Lampyris noctiluca —our native glow-worm—is not 
only without wings, but has even no trace of elytra, 
so that in appearance it is not unlike the larva 
of the same species, though it may be distinguished 
by its broad semicircular prothorax, its more fully 
developed legs, and much greater luminosity. In 
the genus Lucicola —which is represented by two 
or three species in South Europe—both sexes are 
winged, and the males are even more luminous than 
the females. 
The Telephoridce are distinguished from the two preceding families in having 
the head more exposed, the bases of the antennae more widely separated from one 
another, the pronotum 
somewhat square in shape, 
the maxillary palpi ending 
in a hatchet-shaped joint, 
and the mandibles longer 
and often bifid at the end, 
or toothed on the inner 
side. Some of them are 
among the commonest and 
most familiar of our in¬ 
sects, — being known to 
schoolboys as “ soldiers ” 
Chalcophorci mariana and larva 
(nat. size). 
Agriotes lineatus and its larva—the well-known wire-worm. (Both much 
enlarged, but the larva shown also nat. size.) 
VOL. VI. — IO 
