entomologist starts collecting as a “beetle hunter.” They are the most
frequently observed because they are found everywhere; there is hardly
a log or stone that does not shelter some beetle; they infest all kinds
of timber, damage the living trees in the forest, devour foodstuffs,
stored grain, skins, furs and drugs; others are attracted to all kinds
of decaying animal or vegetable matter; while hundreds either in the
larval or perfect state are to be found all through the year upon the
flowers, foliage, or bark of trees and plants.
Thus they are readily collected, and when obtained are much more easy
to look after and keep than the more delicate insects, on account of
their stout horny structure.
Beetles are typical insects in that the head, thorax, and abdomen are
very well defined, and can be readily distinguished from each other;
the insect is more or less protected with a stout horny integument.
But the joints are flexible, so that though the parts fit close and
the body appears ensheathed in regular armour plate, most of the
species are very active. They are all furnished with cutting, biting,
or chewing jaws, and are therefore called mandibulate insects; and
with very few exceptions have well developed eyes and antennae, the
latter produced into all kinds of curious shapes in some groups, but
usually slender, filiform and many jointed. The thorax consists of one
solid segment, the three portions, so apparent in some insects, being
soldered together to form one uniform mass when viewed from above. The
large abdomen is said to contain ten distinct segments on dissection,
but when viewed from the under-surface generally only five can be seen.
Instead of the thin flying, or membranous fore-wings of other insects,
the first pair in the beetles are transformed into two horny plates
completely covering the dorsal surface of the abdomen and called the
elytra. When at rest they fit close together over the back, but can
be readily opened out in flight. Though of little use in flying, they
probably assist a large heavy beetle in balancing or steering through
the air, and always cover the two large pointed membranous hind flying
wings, which when not in use are folded up beneath them. In some
beetles the elytra are not divided, but form a solid shield; and the
hind wings are wanting, or if they exist are simple pads. The various
families have the head, mouth parts, and legs admirably adapted to
their different habits and diet.
Their larvae are also as variable in form as the perfect insects; many
are active, slender grubs with three pairs of legs, and large powerful
jaws, as in the carnivorous species; elongate cylindrical jointed
creatures with scaly heads, or short and wrinkled grubs like the wood
borers; others quite slug-like feed upon the surface of the foliage;
and a few are clothed with fine hairs.
[Illustration: =Fig. 54.=--Diagram of a Water-Beetle,
showing the Dorsal surface.
1, Labrum; 2, clypeus; 3, head; 4, prothorax; 5, maxillary
palpus; 6, antennae; 7, eyes; 8, elytron; 9, wings; 10,
scutellum; 11, abdominal segments; 12, scutellum of the
metathorax; 13, claws of the feet or the fore leg; 14, tarsus;
15, tibia; 16, femur; 17, middle leg; 18, spines or spurs on
tibia; 19, tarsus; 20, hind leg.
(Redrawn from Westwood [Griffiths’ Animal Kingdom].)]
In the pupal state, for all beetles undergo a complete metamorphosis,
they are inactive, mummy-like creatures showing the outlines of the
future beetle, with the wings, antennae, and legs closely folded down,
and the whole enveloped in a thin membrane. Some form regular cocoons
from the material among which they feed; others seal up at both ends
the cavity in which they have been feeding before they pupate; but many
do not even take this precaution.
The classification of the Coleoptera has been undertaken by many
entomologists. In Gemminger and Harold’s great Catalogue of the
Coleoptera, seventy-five families were enumerated; Sharp has recently
adopted eighty, but when it comes to the larger sub-divisions none
of them agree. Westwood in his Classification has an alarming array
of sections, tribes, stirps, and sub-families: Kirby gives fourteen
sections in his Text Book; while Sharp simplifies the matter by forming
six series, some of them on the old lines, but his third series is
apparently more of a dumping ground than anything else for those that
will not fit into the other five, for it includes such dissimilar
families as the Staphylinidae, Buprestidae, Coccinellidae and many
others.
As Masters’ Catalogue of the Described Coleoptera of Australia is the
list used by all Australian collectors, I shall follow his grouping
of the families (originally based on that of Gemminger and Harold),
defining the groups of each important or distinct family, though
through want of space many of them can be only briefly noticed.
There have been so many describers of Australian beetles, that their
names alone would take some enumerating; so that I propose to omit them
here and notice them later on when dealing with the families upon which
they have worked. Australia is rich in large and handsome specimens,
which attracted the attention of the colonists at a very early date
in the history of the country, and quite a number of collections were
made and the specimens forwarded to England. Most of the exploring
expeditions that traversed the back country had a collector of some
sort on their staff, and it was usually beetles that formed the bulk of
the entomological specimens obtained. Again the Scientific Exploring
Ships, fitted out by our own and foreign countries, that visited the
different ports, collected many zoological specimens, so that many
of our larger beetles were known and described many years ago. Over
7,200 are listed in Masters’ Catalogue, and since its publication some
thousands have been added to our list.
Family 1. Tiger Beetles.
CICINDELIDAE.
This family is well represented in Australia by about forty-five
species, chiefly described by Macleay (Trans. Ent. Soc. N.S.W. 1871),
and later on (Proc. Linn. Soc. N.S.W., 1887–8); and Count Castelnau
(Trans. Royal Soc. Victoria). The typical Tiger Beetles are slender
graceful insects, with broad short heads, furnished with large
projecting eyes, and great powerful jaws; the thorax is produced into a
cylindrical neck; and the short rounded elytra cover large wings.
[Illustration: =Fig. 55.=--_Megacephala cylindrica_
(Macleay).
The Metallic Green Tiger Beetle.
(Original photo. Burton.)]
The larvae are elongated creatures, with large curving jaws; they
live in burrows in the ground, generally in the vicinity of a
waterhole or creek where there is a sandy shore; here they remain
hidden during the day, and come out at night to capture and devour
the less powerful insects they come across. One of our largest and
most handsome species is _Megacephala cylindrica_, found in the
western country, where it hides deep down in the cracks of the soil;
it lives chiefly upon ants. It measures over ¾ of an inch in length,
and is of a rich metallic green colour: the mouth, antennae and legs
are brownish yellow. A second species, _M. frenchi_, has been
recently described by Sloane, and ranges from North West Queensland
into Western Australia. The Genus _Tetracha_ contains a number
of handsome, shorter, broad-bodied Tiger Beetles with green metallic
tints and reddish brown or yellow legs, and similar coloured markings
on the wing covers. They form burrows, like their larvae, along the
sandy margins of rivers and water-holes, coming out and running along
the water’s edge at twilight, and often flying into the lamp at night.
_Tetracha australis_ has a wide range from the Murray river to the
interior; I have dug them out of the sand round an artesian bore near
the Queensland border. It is smaller than the previously described
one, which it somewhat resembles in general colour, but can be easily
distinguished by the larger jaws, shorter body, and the elytra tipped
with yellow near the apex.
_T. australasiae_ and _T. hopei_ are smaller species, dull
green, marked with reddish brown on the wing covers; they are found in
North West Australia, while several other species are recorded from
Queensland.
The _Cicindela_ are not common about Sydney; two species, however,
are to be found; _Cicindela ypsilon_, about ½ an inch long, is
so named from the dark markings on the cream-coloured wing cases
resembling the Greek E; they are to be found running about on the
seashore in hundreds in midsummer, and can easily be caught by throwing
a handful of sand over them: though so numerous, I have never been able
to find their larvae. In captivity one ate raw beef quite readily,
burying its jaw in the strange food and sucking up the juice.
_C. circumcincta_ is a smooth, dark green beetle with the outer
edges of the wing covers marked with yellow; it is sometimes taken
about Sydney, but is not very common.
The smallest Australian species is _C. tenuicollis_, described
by Macleay from specimens I collected on a sandy flat near the
Barrier Ranges in N.W. Australia; it is a rich, metallic red insect
with slender legs and small thorax. On a sandy road near Cairns, N.
Queensland, several small species were so plentiful that they often
flew up in clouds, and I have taken scores in half an hour with a
butterfly net.
The tropical Genus _Distypsidera_ is represented by about a dozen
species, chiefly confined to North Queensland, where they hunt over the
stems of trees; when approached they run round the trunk to keep out of
sight; they are broader and more thickset than the _Cicindela_,
and their eyes are very large and prominent; _D. flavicans_ is the
only one that comes down as far as Northern N.S. Wales.
The researches of Hacker in North Queensland have added several new and
interesting species of Tiger Beetles from the Coen River, some of which
are closely allied to New Guinea forms.
Family 2. Carnivorous Ground Beetles.
CARABIDAE.
These are broader and thicker set than the Cicindelidae, varying in
size from several inches to a line in length; the head is smaller than
the thorax; and most of them are black or reddish brown, while others
are richly marked with metallic tints.
They are most numerous in open forest country, hiding under logs or
stones during the day and hunting over the ground at night: when camped
in the bush, where logs are plentiful, the entomologist can often trap
many interesting species by sinking empty tins into the soil, into
which they readily tumble.
The larvae are slender creatures with three pairs of simple legs; their
bodies are protected with stout horny plates, and the head is furnished
with large powerful jaws; they are found in the same situations as the
adult beetles, and devour all kinds of insects that they can capture;
the larger ones even eat small frogs. This family has been divided
into a great number of sub-families which it is hardly necessary to
enumerate here.
Australia is very rich in _Carabidae_; over 1,600 species have been
described. Chaudoir described many in Russian and Belgian; Newman,
Westwood, Pascoe, Hope, and Bates in English; Castelnau, Macleay,
and Sloane in Australian scientific journals; so that the literature
dealing with these beetles is very scattered, but the references can be
found in Masters’ Catalogue.
_Calosoma schayeri_ is our type of this cosmopolitan genus. They live
in cavities in cultivated fields, and are very useful insects where
numerous, for they devour the larvae and pupae of many species of
cut-worms. It measures about 1 inch in length, has a small head, narrow
rounded thorax, and very broad, short, rounded abdomen; the whole is
bright metallic green. It has a wide range over Australia, and may
sometimes be even taken in the Sydney streets.
The Genus _Pamborus_ contains many distinctive black beetles, some of
which are marked with coppery green tints; they measure up to 1 inch
in length, and are broad in proportion. When captured, many of them
discharge an acrid fluid or gas that stains the fingers reddish brown.
_Pamborus viridis_ is black, with the wing covers thickly ridged with
parallel punctured striae marked with green.
_P. alternans_ is a larger beetle, 1¼ inches long, with the same
small head, and rounded thorax tapering and narrow behind; the
coppery-tinted elytra have very broad parallel ridges.
[Illustration: =Figs. 56–59.=--Typical Carabidae.
56. _Helluo costatus_ (Bonelli). The Desert-Carab.
58. _Hyperion schroetteri_ (Schreib.). The Forest-Carab.
57. _Trichosternus renardi_ (Chaud.). The Scrub-Carab.
59. _Catadromus australis_ (Casteln.). The Swamp-Carab.
(Original photo. Burton.)]
_Drypta australis_ is a small beetle about 5 lines in length; it has a
pointed head, large projecting eyes, and the thorax forms a cylindrical
neck hardly broader than the head; the wing covers do not quite cover
the tip of the abdomen. In general colour it is yellowish brown, with
the antennae, legs, a broad stripe down the centre and the edges of
the wing covers dark purple to black; the wing covers are very finely
striated and punctured. They live on the edges of swamps, and sometimes
fly into the lamp at night.
A beetle with a very wide range is _Helluo costatus_; it is a medium
sized brown beetle; the head and thorax are about the same length, the
latter rounded on either side in front but narrowed behind; the wing
covers are flattened, broadly ridged, and not reaching to the tip of
the abdomen.
[Illustration: =Fig. 60.=--_Pheropsophus
verticalis_ (Dejean).
The Yellow Bombardier Beetle which discharges an acrid gas
when disturbed.
(“Agricultural Gazette,” N.S.W.)]
Our Common “Bombardier Beetle,” _Pheropsophus verticalis_, is another
widely distributed species; it measures over ½ an inch in length, and
is of a general dark brown tint, with the head, antennae, and thorax
dull yellow; the wing covers, which do not reach to the tip of the
abdomen, are blotched on either side and the tip with the same colour.
It can be found in any damp spot under stones or logs; and as soon
as disturbed, it discharges a small cloud of vapour with a distinct
report, and which feels quite warm to the fingers.
The Genus _Scopodes_ contains a number of tiny beetles that are common
on the plains and about crabholes and swamps.
_Scopodes sigillatus_ has the wing covers roughened, and measures about
2 lines in length; with its large projecting eyes it might be mistaken
for a small Tiger Beetle.
We now come to a group, PSEUDOMORPHIDES, comprising a number of genera
that live under the loose bark on tree trunks; they have adapted
themselves to their confined hiding places, so that they have become
flattened and rounded, and even remarkable in colouration; and so,
unless a collector carefully examines them, he would never at first
sight think of including them among the Carabidae.
The Genus _Silphomorpha_, in which over 40 species have been described,
are yellow and black, or yellow and brown beetles up to ½ an inch in
length; all their parts fit close together into a convex or oval form
very like some of the water-beetles.
_Silphomorpha colymbetoides_ and _S. nitiduloides_ are found about
Sydney. The first has the head and thorax reddish brown, the elytra
pale yellow broadly blotched in the centre with black: the second, much
larger (¼ of an inch in length) is blackish, and the centre only of
each wing cover blotched with dull yellow.
The members of the Genus _Adelotopus_ are mostly black, narrow, and
shield-shaped, with the tips of the wing covers truncated; while in
_Philophloeus_, though very thin and flattened, they have the head
and thorax well divided from the broad abdomen; and are dull yellow,
striped, and barred with darker brown.
Turning from these we come to the giant of all our carabs, _Hyperion
schroetteri_, which lives in cavities in tree trunks, where it is often
found by splitters in the red gum forests in Victoria and N.S. Wales. I
have taken it at night round the camp fire on the Murray frontage. It
is shining black, and measures 2½ inches in length, but being narrow
in proportion it appears much longer than it really is; while with its
large elongate head and immense jaws it is a very formidable-looking
creature.
The next in order is a large and interesting group, the SCARITIDES,
which are not only wingless, but have the wing covers soldered together
into one solid armour plate; their legs are adapted for digging, and
many of them live in underground tunnels of considerable length. In
most species the head, armed with large powerful jaws, fits close into
the thorax, so that they move together; and in some groups the insect
appears to be formed only of two parts, for the head and thorax taken
together are as long and broad as the abdomen. After a heavy fall of
rain in the interior, some species may be found in numbers under logs
and stones, driven out of their holes and deep burrows. They are much
sought after by collectors; and Macleay, Blackburn, and Sloane have
described a number of curious species.
_Eutoma tinctilatum_, found about Sydney, and typical of the elongate
slender Scaritides, was described by Newman many years ago, and figured
by Westwood in his “Arcana Entomologica 1841”; it is a shining black
beetle about 8 lines in length.
_Carenum bonelli_, the commonest Sydney species of this genus, measures
about ¾ of an inch and is broad in proportion; it is black, with bright
metallic green tints on thorax and elytra.
The members of the Genus _Philoscaphus_ are short and broad, with the
elytra covered with rows of warts.
_P. tuberculatus_ has a wide range over the western country; it
measures over 1 inch in length; is black; the head and thorax are
broader than the body; the latter oval, with the elytra finely rugose.
[Illustration: =Fig. 61.=--_Euryscaphus lobicollis_
(Sloane).
The Great Ground Scaritid Beetle, found in the interior.]
The Genus _Euryscaphus_ contains the giants of the group.
_Euryscaphus titanus_, a shining black beetle, is nearly 2 inches
in length, and measures ¾ of an inch across the elytra; while _E.
lobicollis_, a smaller beetle, has the body still broader in proportion
to its size; both these and several other fine species are not uncommon
on the Western Australian goldfields about Kalgoorlie.
The allied CLIVINIDES, recently monographed by Sloane (Proc. Linn.
Soc. N.S.W. 1896) are like elongate miniature Carenums furnished with
dilated fore-legs adapted for digging; they are generally taken along
the edges of swamps and watercourses under logs or the debris on the
soft mud. They are world wide in their distribution, and are most
plentiful in the warmer portions of the globe: Australia is rich in
species: Sloane lists 55 species in his paper.
_Clivina basalis_ has a wide range over S. Australia, Victoria, and
N.S. Wales; it measures ¼ inch; is black, with the basal portion of the
elytra and the legs red.
_C. australasiae_, slightly larger, is all black; it has a similar
range, and is also recorded from New Zealand and Lord Howe Island.
The next group comprise the typical _Chlaenius_; they are rather
long-legged beetles with a small head and somewhat heart-shaped
thorax forming a slight neck behind, and with a broad, oval, convex
abdomen. They are active beetles, generally found under stones or wood
near water-holes; many of them have a greenish dull metallic tint.
_Chlaenius puncticeps_ is black, with the legs and an irregular blotch
at the apical half of each wing cover dull yellow. _C. maculifer_, from
Queensland, is smaller; _C. laeteviridis_ is dull green with the edges
of the wing covers yellow; _C. marginatus_ is a larger and brighter
green beetle with the wing covers marked with yellow in a similar
manner.
_Promecoderus concolor_, typical of the genus, is a shining black
beetle about ½ inch in length, of a curious cylindrical shape with
the head turned down in front. These beetles are found all over the
interior in dry country under stones or logs. The allied Genus _Parroa_
was formed by Castelnau for several curious beetles taken in the
interior near the Paroo River. _Parroa noctis_, from Kalgoorlie, W.A.,
measures over 1 inch in length, and is a rounded solid-looking black
beetle. The bulk of the species once included in the Genus _Harpalus_
is now divided up into a number of groups; most of the small black
carabs running about in the suburban gardens in the early summer belong
to this division.
The FERONIDES comprise a number of our largest carabs: _Catadromus
australis_ measures nearly 2 inches in length, is broad in proportion;
it is shining black with the wing covers broadly ridged, and their
margins and the hind portion of the thorax richly marked with bright
metallic green. _C. lacordairei_ is smaller, and similar in general
form, with the thorax smaller and the metallic colouration on the
thorax running right round to the hind margin of the head. Both these
beetles are found along the edges of swamps and lagoons in the Murray
country living under dead logs, where their black banded larvae may
also be found, sometimes feasting on small frogs.
All the beetles known under the Genera _Homalosoma_ and _Trichisternus_
have been placed in the new Genus _Castelnaudia_ by the Russian
entomologist Tschitscherini, as both the former names were
preoccupied. This group contains many large handsome beetles, chiefly
confined to our coastal forest country, where they live under dead logs.
_Castelnaudia renardi_ is one of the common species in the Tweed River
scrubs; it measures 1½ inches in length; is black with the parallel
striae on the elytra widely apart; the head very large, is turned down
and furnished with long powerful jaws.
_C. imperiale_, from Southern Queensland, is a very handsome species;
it is about the same size as the former but has the thorax and elytra
more flattened; and the head, thorax, and margins of the wing covers
are rich metallic green.
In November I took several specimens on the top of Mt. Tambourine,
S. Queensland, under deeply buried logs by the roadside, where they
live in broad excavated galleries; in two nests I found three larvae
and eggs. The former, probably by their size only a few weeks old,
were elongate, flattened, light brown to ochreous coloured creatures,
with the head and dorsal surface of segments chocolate brown. The
head is broader than long, flattened, and furnished with long curved
brown jaws, and has also a stout incurved tooth near the base of
each jaw. They were very active creatures and lived for over a month
in captivity. The eggs were dull yellow, ⅜ of an inch long, broadly
rounded, and were enclosed in a thin clay shell like the rind of an
orange.
The Genus _Notonomus_ has been recently revised by Sloane (Pro. Linn.
Soc. N.S.W. 1902); in this paper he enumerated 72 species, a number of
them previously undescribed. These beetles are apterous, and confined
to the coastal forests of Eastern Australia. Sloane says: “From the
Grampians in Western Victoria, along the coast of Eastern Australia as
far north as the Burnett River in Queensland, and many species are very
restricted in their range.”
_Notonomus australasiae_ is one of the commonest species around Sydney;
it measures under ¾ of an inch in length, and is of a uniform black
colour; the broad thorax is arcuate behind the head, swelling out and
broadly rounded on the sides; it has a rich blue metallic tint, and
a distinct medium suture; the wing covers are distinctly striated,
forming broad parallel ridges.
Passing over a number of more or less important genera we finish with
the Genus _Bembidium_, which contains a number of small active beetles
generally found along the edges of swamps.
_B. ocellatum_ is a shining black beetle under ⅙ of an inch in length,
with a broad head, and the thorax rounded on the hind margin.
Family 3. Water Beetles.
DYTISCIDAE.
This group contains the first division of the Water Beetles; these have
the antennae bare and filiform; short palpi and undivided eyes; the
legs fringed with hairs, the front pair not longer than the hind pair,
adapted for swimming. They live in the water both in the larval and
beetle stage; the former are slender, elongate creatures, with a body
consisting of twelve segments; the head is broad and furnished with
powerful hollow jaws; they are very voracious creatures, devouring all
sorts of aquatic insects, and even the smaller and weaker of their own
species. When full grown they pupate in cells which they form in the
soft mud.