"Yes."
"Oh, of course!" shouted the children. "Why didn't we think of that?
But you said we had never seen it."
"So I did," said the guide, "and I don't believe there is one child here
who has ever carefully watched the potato-bug. And there's the
carpet-beetle, whose babies eat carpets unless your mother tempts them
with pieces of red flannel. And there's the searcher-beetle, with its
pretty green or violet wing covers, who is always on the search for
caterpillars. And there's the fire-fly, which is a soft-bodied beetle.
"And there's the very useful little beetle we call the ladybug, which is
not a bug, but a beetle. The ladybug is a great help to men who own
fruit orchards in the West. All over the country are to be found little
bugs called scale insects. These scales are very bad for trees, because
with their long, slender beaks the scales pump out the sap. Sometimes
they are so thick on the branch that they coat it entirely. You remember
that I told you that one of these troublesome scales is the
cottony-cushion scale, and that one day it was discovered that a
lady-beetle from Australia liked these scales very much. So a great many
of them were taken to California to eat the scales. The ladybugs eat
little green aphids, too, and often Mrs. Ladybug will lay her eggs
right in the midst of a family of aphids; and then the larvæ are
surrounded by a hearty lunch when they come out of the egg. They eat the
aphids, the scales, and sometimes the eggs of other insects."
"Time, Ben," said Adam, "to have the flapjacks. I guess the storm must
be blowing over."
All drew up to the cabin table, and ate as heartily as if they were
eating dinner. It really looked as if the children had had no supper.
"In about half an hour," said Tom, "the storm will be over. Aren't there
any beetles that live in the water, Ben?"
"Oh yes; you can see them any day if you go by a brook. The
diving-beetles are skimming about, rowing themselves along with their
flattened hind legs. Every few minutes they come to the surface and lift
their wings to get a little air under them, then down they go into the
brook. They are very hungry beetles, eating other insects which they
find in the water. The boldest often try to take a bite out of a fish.
Just think of calling a baby beetle a water-tiger! Well, these babies
are as savage and ferocious to the little creatures living about them in
the water as a big tiger would be to us, if we should happen to meet
one.
"I like best the whirligig-beetles, they are such frisky fellows, always
having a good time, frolicking about with dozens of other little
whirligigs. They are bluish-black and shiny, and if you look carefully
you will see a little bubble at the tip of every tail. This little
bubble is held there by tiny hairs, and because whirligig has it, it can
breathe while it stays under the water. From time to time it comes to
the surface to get a new bubble, then is off again for another race or
game of tag with its friends, and at the same time to snap up a few
water creatures for dinner. It looks as though it had four eyes, but it
has not, just two, divided into upper and lower halves. The upper halves
look up through the water and the lower ones down at the bottom of the
brooks. So, you see, insects must step lively if they want to keep out
of its clutches.
"The babies of some beetles, instead of liking nice, clean food, prefer
dead animals. The mother and father hunt around until they find a dead
mouse or bird; then they begin to dig away the earth under the mouse or
bird and around it. Finally the poor dead thing is in a deep hole; then
Mrs. Burying-beetle lays her eggs on it, and together they cover it up
with earth. When the grubs hatch they find plenty to eat, and are soon
big burying-beetles, like their mothers and fathers.
"Did you ever wonder how the little fat worms get inside of chestnuts
and acorns? A beetle called a weevil is the creature which puts the fat
worms there. Mrs. Weevil has a long, slender, curved beak. She crawls up
on to the side of a chestnut, bores a hole in the side, then lays an egg
deep down in it. After a while the egg hatches and a tiny grub begins to
feed on the nut. Fatter and fatter it gets; sometimes it lies in the nut
all winter, but more often it crawls out and buries itself in the ground
while it grows into a weevil.
"Some day, as you are walking along a sunny road in the country, you may
meet a blister-beetle. It is a pretty, bluish-green color, and when you
pick it up you will see drops of oil oozing out of its joints. The dried
bodies will raise a blister on the skin, and that is the reason we call
such beetles blister-beetles. There is a queer blister-beetle who lays
her eggs near bees' nests. The baby beetles then wait for a bee to come
along. They fasten themselves to the hairs on the bee's body. When the
bee goes to its nest to put in the honey the young beetle manages to
get into a honey-cell with the egg. Mrs. Bee does not see that anything
is amiss, seals up the cell, and flies away for another load. The larva
first eats the egg of Mrs. Bee, then it changes into a clumsy kind of a
fellow, floats in the honey, and eats all it can so that it will quickly
become a grown-up.
"There is one beetle which plants a tiny fungus in its home in the
ground. The babies run along and eat the tips of this delicacy, while
the mothers and fathers take larger bites. These are called
ambrosia-beetles, because of the dainty food they eat. Now that the
storm is over, I mustn't tell you anything more than a few words about
the engraver-beetle, which lives between the bark and the live wood of a
tree. Mr. and Mrs. Engraver-Beetle make a long tunnel under the bark.
Mrs. Engraver makes notches along the sides, and in every notch lays an
egg. When the babies hatch, each one begins a tunnel for itself, running
out straight from the long one. And now that's the end of this story."
"Well, Ben," said Tom, respectfully, "these children don't know the
value of the things they are learning. It's a privilege, sir, to have a
chance to guide with you. I've learned more in these last years about
God's wonders from you than ever I learned in all my long life. I didn't
know there were so many beetles in the world."
"These are only half a dozen of a multitude of beetles which we haven't
the time to name."
"Now, off to bed, children," said Mrs. Reece, "or you'll never be able
to get up early. Good-night to every one!"