COLEOPTERA.

In collections of insects the Coleoptera almost always occupy the

principal place. They are sought after by collectors on account of

the brightness of their colours, of the solidity of their integuments,

and the facility with which they can be preserved. This circumstance

has contributed much to give to the Coleopterous Order marked

preponderance in the immense series of insects. Many more have been

collected than any one has as yet been enabled to describe; and the

collections are encumbered with species of which no naturalist has yet

given an account.

Admitting that the first-rate collections contain each about 25,000

perfectly distinct species, and that a certain fraction of these

treasures is peculiar to each collection, M. Blanchard came to the

conclusion that we must estimate the number at more than 100,000 of

the species of Coleoptera which would be obtained if the different

entomological collections of France, England, and Germany were put

together. But every day we see arriving from different regions of the

globe new riches, hardly dreamt of up to that time; and it is not only

the small species, but the larger and more beautiful also, which

furnish their contingent. It may, then, be believed that, if the

entire surface of the earth were carefully explored, we should

obtain an incalculable number of Coleoptera, having sufficient

characteristics to constitute distinct species or kinds.

The Coleoptera (from [Greek: koleos], a sheath, and [Greek: pteron], a

wing) are insects with four wings. The anterior wings, or _elytra_,

are not used in flying; they are sheaths, more or less hard, sometimes

varied with bright colours, and never crossing over each other. The

posterior wings are membranous, presenting a ramification of veins,

and usually folding up under the _elytra_, which protect them when at

rest. The mouth of Coleoptera is provided with mandibles, with jaws,

and two quite distinct lips, and is suited for mastication. They

undergo complete metamorphosis. After an existence of greater or less

extent in the larva state (in the case of the cockchafer three

years), the insect changes into a pupa, which remains in a state of

complete immobility. After a certain time, the pupa bursts its

envelope and assumes the form of a perfect insect. The Coleoptera

presents the utmost variety of habits as regards their habitations and

food. One does not find in this Order those admirable instincts, those

manifestations of intelligence, which bring certain Hymenoptera near

to those beings which are highest in the animal scale; but they offer

peculiarities very well deserving serious and profound study. Some are

carnivorous, and thus they are useful to man in destroying other

noxious insects, which they seek on the ground, on low plants, on

trees, and even in the depths of the waters. Many of these Coleoptera

feed on animal matter in a state of putrefaction. We may look on them

as useful auxiliaries: they are Nature's undertakers.

A great number live in the excrements of animals. The dung of oxen,

buffaloes, and camels afford shelter to Coleoptera of different

families, which thus live on vegetable matter more or less animalised.

Others attack skins and dried animals in general; and some are the pest

of entomological collections. Lastly, immense legions of Coleoptera are

phytophagous; that is to say, they attack roots, bark, wood, leaves, and

fruits, and cause much annoyance to the agriculturist. Above all, the

larvæ are to be dreaded. Those which live in wood may in a few years

occasion the loss of trees, vigorous and full of life; or completely

destroy the beams of a building. Certain larvæ, such as those of the

cockchafer, eat away the roots of vegetables, and so destroy the

harvests. Others, lastly, devour the leaves and the stalks of plants,

attack the flowers in the gardens, or the corn in the barns; and so man

makes desperate war against them.

In the immense variety of known Coleoptera we must be contented to

choose those types which are most prominent and most characteristic.

We will begin with the _Scarabæides_, with their heavy compact body,

and short antennæ, terminated by a foliaceous club. It is to this

tribe that belongs the beautiful Rose Beetle (_Cetonia aurata_), which

lives on roses; the Cockchafer (_Melolontha vulgaris_); the

_Scarabæus_ of the Egyptians; &c.

This is the most interesting tribe of the whole Order Coleoptera. It

corresponds with the great division of the _Lamellicornes_ of

Latreille. This name of _Lamellicornes_ was intended to remind us of

the arrangement into laminæ, more or less close together, of the club

of the antennæ of these insects. Many _Scarabæi_ have their mandibles

membranous, or at least partially so, and always small. This

peculiarity corresponds to their habits. Never, indeed, have they to

triturate hard bodies; they all feed either on flowers, on leaves, or

on stercoraceous matter. Their larvæ resemble each other much, even

those of families very widely differing from each other in the perfect

state. They are large, whitish worms, with diaphanous skins, scaly

heads, furnished with toothed mandibles, living in the ground or in

rotten wood. The pupæ are fat and stumpy, and they already show the

features of the perfect insect. They make a chamber in which to

undergo their changes. They remain generally three years in the larva

state. The duration of the pupa is very short, as also is that of the

perfect insect. The differences of the sexes are often very marked on

the exterior, by protuberances, horns, &c., which constitute the

distinctive ornament of the males.

In the group of _Scarabæides_ we shall have to speak, above all, of

the _Cetoniadæ_, the Chafers, and the _Scarabæi_ properly so called.

The family _Cetoniadæ_ is one of the most remarkable, on account of

the beauty of the insects which compose it and of the richness of

their metallic lustre, some being of great splendour, and others

having velvety tints. The larvæ live in wood in a state of

decomposition; the perfect insects frequent flowers, and like the sun.

[Illustration: Fig. 423.--Rose Beetle (_Cetonia aurata_).]

This family contains a great number of species, the type of which is

the Rose Beetle (_Cetonia aurata_), of a beautiful green colour shot

with gold, with transverse whitish lines. The rose beetle frequents

roses especially, of which it eats the petals and the stamens. It is

the _Golden Melolontha_ of Aristotle, who tells us that this

unfortunate insect shared with the cockchafer the privilege of amusing

children. The _Cetonia_ flies by day and by night, making use of its

inferior wings without opening the elytra (Fig. 423). When seized, it

pours out from the extremity of its abdomen a foetid liquid, the

only means of defence the poor insect possesses. The larva (Fig. 424)

much resembles the larva of the cockchafers, but the legs are shorter.

It is found in rotten wood, and often in ants' nests. When it has

acquired its full development it makes a cocoon of an oval form (Fig.

424), in which it transforms itself into a pupa; the cocoon is

composed of bits of wood agglomerated with a silky matter which the

larva secretes.

[Illustration: Fig. 424.--Larva and cocoon of the Rose Beetle.]

The larva of the _Cetonia splendidula_--which is the most magnificent

found in France--is met with sometimes in the nests of wild bees. In

Russia the rose beetle is considered a very efficacious remedy for

hydrophobia. In the governorship of Saratow, which is traversed by the

Volga, hydrophobia is very frequent, on account of the heats which

reign during the whole summer in its arid steppes. The inhabitants,

incessantly exposed to be bitten by mad dogs, have tried in succession

a great many preparations to remedy the results of these terrible

accidents. It appears that the _Cetonia_, dried and reduced to powder,

has produced on many occasions good effects. This is the recipe which

an inhabitant of Saratow published in a Russian journal--adding, that

he had employed it for thirty years, that not one of the patients

treated by him had died, and that his remedy could be employed with

success in all the phases of the disease:--In spring they search at

the bottom of the nests of the wood ant for certain white larvæ, which

they carefully preserve in a pot, together with the earth in which

they were found, till the moment of their metamorphosis, which takes

place in the month of May. The insect, which is the common rose

beetle, is killed, dried, and kept in pots hermetically sealed, so

that it may preserve the strong odour which it exhales in spring,

which seems to be a necessary condition of the remedy proving

efficient. When a case of hydrophobia presents itself, they reduce to

powder some of these, and spread this powder on a piece of

bread-and-butter, and make the patient eat it. Every part of the

insect must enter into the composition of this powder, which, for this

reason, cannot be very fine. During the whole time a patient is under

treatment he must avoid drinking as much as possible, or, if his

thirst is very great, he must only drink a little pure water; but he

may eat. Generally, this remedy produces sleep, which may last for

thirty-six hours, and which must not be disturbed. When the patient

wakes, he is, they say, cured. The bite must be treated locally with

the usual surgical appliances.

As to the dose of the remedy, that depends on the age of the patient

and the development of the disease. They give, to an adult,

immediately after the bite, from two to three beetles; to a child,

from one to two; to a person in whom the disease has already declared

itself, from four to five. Given to a person in good health, the

remedy, however, would not be the least dangerous. In cases in which

the symptoms of hydrophobia show themselves some days after the

employment of the remedy, they recommence the treatment. They have

also tried to prepare this remedy with insects collected not in their

larvæ but in the imago state, by catching them on flowers, and it

seems that these attempts have succeeded. According to M. Bogdanoff,

in many governorships of the south of Russia the lovers of sporting

are in the habit of making their dogs from time to time swallow (as a

preservative) half of a _Cetonia_ with bread or a little wine. Every

one in those countries is persuaded of the efficacy of this means for

stopping the development of the disease. One ought not, perhaps, to

reject a belief so widespread and deeply rooted without some

experiments to guarantee us in doing so, for medicine does not yet

possess any remedy against hydrophobia: it might not then be useless

to try this.

Two smaller species than the rose beetle, the _Cetonia stictica_ and

the _Cetonia hirtella_, which has yellowish hairs, live on the flowers

of thistles. Western Africa, the Cape, Madagascar, &c., are very rich

in species of _Cetoniæ_. Among the _Cetoniadæ_ is the genus

_Goliathus_, gigantic insects which inhabit Africa. Their total length

sometimes attains from three to five inches. Their colours are

generally a dull white or yellow, which has nothing metallic about it,

with spots of a velvety black--these are due to a sort of down of an

extreme thinness, and which very easily comes off. The head of these

enormous Coleoptera is generally cut or scooped out, and is adorned

sometimes with one or two horns. Their legs, strong and robust, are

armed with spurs, and sometimes present on their exterior sharp

indentations, which give to these insects a crabbed physiognomy, which

their inoffensive habits are far from justifying. All these horns, and

all these teeth, which look so terrible, are nothing, in fact, with a

great number of these insects, but simple ornaments. They compose the

picturesque uniform of the males. They are equivalent to the bear-skin

caps, the flaming helmets, and the bullion-fringed epaulettes of our

soldiers. The dress of the female _Goliathus_ is much more modest, as

is becoming to the sex. We here represent the _Goliathus Derbyana_

(Fig. 426) and Polyphemus (Fig. 427).

The Goliaths were formerly excessively rare in collections, and of a

price inaccessible to ordinary amateurs--one single specimen costing

as much as twenty pounds. But for some time the Goliaths of the coast

of Guinea and of Cape Palmas have been sold to European amateurs at a

modest price, thanks to those travellers who, after the example of Dr.

Savage, have collected them by hundreds in the countries which produce

them. These enormous Coleoptera are seen on the coast of Guinea

fluttering about at the top of trees, the flowers of which they are

seeking after. To catch them the trees are felled or else they are

shot at with a gun loaded with sand, as is also done for the

humming-birds. The species which Dr. Savage made common is the

_Goliathus cacicus_, of which we represent the male and female (Figs.

428, 429). It is met with on the coast of Guinea. The _Goliathus

Druryi_ (Fig. 430) inhabits Sierra Leone, on the west coast of Guinea.

The numerous expeditions which are at the present moment being made

into the interior of Africa will not fail to increase the number of

species of these splendid insects, which are the ornament of all

collections.

[Illustration: Fig. 425.--Cetonia argentea.]

The group of the _Trichiadæ_, which has in this country and in France

a few representatives, is very nearly the same as that of the

_Cetoniadæ_. The _Trichiadæ_ have the elytra shorter, the abdomen

bigger, and the legs more slender. The _Trichius fasciatus_, which is

black, and covered with an ashy down, with the elytra yellow, and with

three black bands, is to be met with in quantities on the garden

rose-tree, in the months of June and July. The larvæ live in the

interior of old beams of wood, respecting their surfaces. In a garden,

at a few leagues from Paris, a little wooden bridge had been built. It

seemed on the outside to be in a perfect state of preservation.

Nothing on the exterior would have led one to think it was possible

for the oak timbers which composed it to break down. A good many of

them, however, broke suddenly. It was then seen that the wood had been

scooped out right up to the surface, which was nothing better than a

thin sheet, of an imperceptible thinness. All the interior was full of

_Trichii_, in the states of larva, pupa, and perfect insect.

[Illustration: Fig. 426.--Goliathus Derbyana.]

[Illustration: Fig. 427.--Goliathus Polyphemus.]

The _Trichius fasciatus_, sometimes called the Bee Beetle, is very

common in the environs of Paris. Geoffroy has described it under the

rather quaint name of the "Livrée d'Ancre," because the Marquis of

Ancre made his servants wear yellow coats, bordered by braid

alternately crossed with green and yellow.

[Illustration: Fig. 428.--Goliathus cacicus, male.]

[Illustration: Fig. 429.--Goliathus cacicus, female.]

The _Osmoderma eremita_ is a large insect, of purple colour,

formerly common in the environs of Paris, and which, now-a-days,

cannot be found nearer than Fontainebleau. One must look for them in

earth which fills up the cavity of old willows or of pear trees. The

smell of Russia leather, or of plum, which it exhales, has caused it

to be called, in some places, the Plum-tree Beetle.

[Illustration: Fig. 430.--Goliathus Druryi (natural size).]

The _Gnorimus nobilis_ much resembles the rose beetle, and is found on

elder flowers, the whiteness of which this golden insect relieves. One

species, much smaller, only one or two lines long, is the _Valgus

hemipterus_, which is often met with in spring, in the dust of the

roads. The female has a long auger, which enables it to deposit its

eggs in rotten wood. Dumeril has described at length the singular

movements of this little insect:--The jerking and, as it were

convulsive, movements by which it transports itself from one place to

another; its tottering attitude, resulting from the excessive length

of its hind legs; the vertical carriage of these, which, by their

singular direction, interfere much with the walking, which is directed

by the other legs. One should, above all, notice the artifice which

the _Valgus_ employs, as indeed do many Coleoptera, to escape from his

persecutors, by counterfeiting death. As soon as it is seized by any

enemy, its members stiffen and become motionless. The body, abandoned

to itself, lies unevenly on whatever side it falls, for its legs no

longer bend; if you bend them over, they remain in the inclination

given to them. Nothing then betrays life in this little dry and

slender being, frozen with fear, and imitating death, without,

perhaps, being aware itself of what it is doing.

We must still further mention here the _Incas_--beautiful insects of

the same group, which are met with in South America, and whose males

have an extraordinary head. They fly during the day round the great

trees on which they live. Fig. 431 represents the _Inca clathrata_.

The most commonly-known insect of the family with which we are now

occupied is the cockchafer. The French word for cockchafer,

_hanneton_, according to M. Mulsant, comes from the Latin, _alitonus_

(which has sonorous wings), which first became _halleton_. Linnæus

gave them first the name of _Melolontha_, which they probably had

among the Greeks, and which seems to be the case from this passage in

Aristophanes, in his comedy of "The Clouds:"--"Let your spirit soar,"

says the Greek author, "let it fly whither it lists, like the

Melolontha tied with a thread by the leg." We see that the habit of

martyrising cockchafers is of very early date. The Common Cockchafer

(Fig. 432) is one of the greatest pests to agriculture. In its perfect

state it devours the leaves of many trees, principally those of the

elm; and so children call the fruit of the elm-tree by the name of

"Pains d'Hanneton." But the destruction which they occasion in their

perfect state is little when compared with that which is caused by

their larvæ--those white grubs so dreaded by agriculturists.

[Illustration: Fig. 431.--Inca clathrata.]

Cockchafers make their appearance from the month of April, if the

season is warm. But it is in the month of May that they show

themselves in great quantities; and so they are called in Germany

_Maikäfer_ (Maychafer). They are met with also in June. The duration

of their life as a perfect insect is six weeks. They fear the heat of

the day and the bright sunshine, so, during the day, they remain

hooked on to the under surface of leaves. It is only early in the

morning, and at sunset, that one sees the cockchafers fluttering round

the trees which they frequent. They fly with rapidity, producing a

monotonous sound by the friction of their wings. But the cockchafer

steers badly when it flies; it knocks itself at each instant against

obstacles it meets with. It then falls heavily to the ground, and

becomes the plaything of children, who are constantly on the look-out

for them. There is a saying, "Étourdi comme un hanneton." What

contributes still more to render the flight of these insects heavy and

sustained only for a short time together is that they are obliged to

inflate themselves like balloons in order to rise into the air: it is

a peculiarity which they share with the migratory locust. Before

taking its flight, the cockchafer agitates its wings for some minutes,

and inflates its abdomen with air. The French children, who perceive

this manoeuvre, say that the cockchafer "compte ses écus" (is

counting its money), and they sing to it this refrain, which has been

handed down for many generations:--

"Hanneton, vole, vole,

Va-t'en à l'école."

A variation which we hear in the western provinces of France is the

following:--

"Barbot, vole, vole, vole,

Ton père est à l'école,

Qui m'a dit, si tu ne voles,

Il te coupera la gorge

Avec un grand couteau de Saint-George."

[Illustration: Fig. 432.--Cockchafer (_Melolontha vulgaris_).]

During the day the cockchafers remain under the leaves in a state of

perfect immobility; for the heat which gives activity to other

insects, seems, on the contrary, to stupefy them, and it is during the

night only that they devour the leaves of elms, poplars, oaks, beech,

birch-trees, &c. In years when their number is not very great, one

hardly perceives the damage done by them; but at certain periods they

appear in innumerable legions, and then whole parts of gardens or

woods are stripped of their verdure, and present, in the middle of the

summer, the appearance of a winter landscape. The trees thus stripped

do not in general die; but they recover their former vigour with

difficulty, and, in the case of orchard trees, remain one or two years

without bearing fruit. It is principally the trees skirting woods, and

situated along cultivated fields, which are exposed to the ravages of

the cockchafer, because the larvæ of these insects are developed in

the fields. In the interior of forests they are never met with in

great numbers.

In certain years cockchafers multiply in such a frightful manner

that they devastate the whole vegetation of a country. In the environs

of Blois 14,000 cockchafers were picked up by children in a few days.

At Fontainebleau they could have gathered as many in a certain year

in as many hours. Sometimes they congregate in swarms, like locusts,

and migrate from one locality to another, when they lay waste

everything. To present an idea of the prodigious extent to which

cockchafers increase under certain circumstances, we will give a few

statistics:--In 1574, these insects were so abundant in England that

they stopped many mills on the Severn. In 1688, in the county of

Galway, in Ireland, they formed such a black cloud that the sky was

darkened for the distance of a league, and the country people had

great difficulty in making their hay in the places where they

alighted. They destroyed the whole of the vegetation in such a way

that the landscape assumed the desolate appearance of winter. Their

voracious jaws made a noise which may be compared to that produced by

the sawing of a large piece of wood, and in the evening the buzzing of

their wings resembled the distant rolling of drums. The unfortunate

Irish were reduced to the necessity of cooking their invaders, and,

for the want of any other food, of eating them. In 1804, immense

swarms of cockchafers, precipitated by a violent wind into the Lake of

Zurich, formed on the shore a thick bank of bodies heaped up one on

the other, the putrid exhalations from which poisoned the atmosphere.

On May 18, 1832, at nine o'clock in the evening, a legion of

cockchafers assailed a diligence on the road from Gournay to Gisors,

just as it was leaving the village of Talmontiers; the horses, blinded

and terrified, refused to advance, and the driver was obliged to

return as far as the village, to wait till this new sort of hail-storm

was over. M. Mulsant, in his "Monographie des Lamellicornes de la

France," relates that in May, 1841, clouds of cockchafers traversed

the Saône, from the south-east in the direction of the north-west, and

settled in the vineyards of the Mâconnais. The streets of the town of

Mâcon were so full of them, that they were shovelled up with spades.

At certain hours, one could not pass over the bridge without whirling

a stick rapidly round and round, to protect oneself against their

touch.

[Illustration: XI. A Diligence surrounded by a Cloud of Cockchafers.]

The coupling takes place towards the end of May, after which the males

die; the females only surviving them from the time necessary to ensure

the propagation of the species. The number of eggs which a female lays

is from twenty to thirty. With her front leg she hollows out a hole in

the ground from two to four inches in depth, and deposits her eggs, of

a yellowish white and of the size of hemp-seed, therein. Her instinct

leads her to choose soft, light, and well-manured soils, which are, at

the same time, the best ventilated and the most fertile. We may

conclude from this that cultivation and labour have made the

cockchafer more common than it was formerly. It is the child of

civilisation, the parasite of agriculture. In from four to six weeks

after being laid, the little larvæ are hatched (Fig. 433), and

immediately attack the roots of vegetables. They have a hard and

horny head, and slender black legs, longer than in any other species

of _Scarabæides_. Their body is composed of a whitish pulp under a

transparent skin; the head and the mouth have a reddish tinge. The

length of their existence in this state is three, sometimes four

years. From the egg laid in the month of June is hatched a larva, in

the month of July. It increases in size during the last six months of

the year, and continues to do so during the two following years,

changing its skin many times during the period. Towards the end of the

third year it changes into a pupa, after having surrounded itself with

a cocoon consolidated with a glutinous froth and some threads of silk.

The pupa (Fig. 434) is of a pale russety yellow, with two little

points at the extremity of its body; the elytra and the wings, lying

down, cover the legs and the antennæ.

[Illustration: Fig. 434.--Pupa of the Cockchafer (_Melolontha

vulgaris_).]

[Illustration: Fig. 433.--Larva of the Cockchafer (_Melolontha

vulgaris_).]

Towards the end of October the perfect insect is already marked out,

but it is still soft and weak. It passes the winter in its

hiding-place, hardens and becomes coloured at the end of the winter,

and shows itself by degrees on the surface of the ground. In the month

of April, three years after its birth, the cockchafer emerges from the

earth, and commences its attack on the leaves of trees. This long

duration of the development of the insect explains why we do not see

them every year in the same number. When they have once appeared in

great quantities, it is not for three years afterwards that we need

expect to see their progeny again in proportionate numbers. It is,

then, every three years that we have a _cockchafer year_ like 1865,

but in the intermediate years they are never very abundant. For the

first year the little larvæ do not eat much. They feed then

principally on fragments of dung, and on vegetable detritus, and keep

together in families. In winter they bury themselves deeply, so as to

be secure against frost and floods. Next spring the want of a greater

abundance of food forces them to disperse. They then make subterranean

galleries in all directions, without, however, going far from the

place where they were hatched. They begin attacking the roots which

they find within their reach; the damage they do increasing with their

size and the strength of their mandibles. Among roots, they seem to

prefer those of the strawberry and of rose-trees; but they do not

despise other vegetables, and attack legumes and cereals as well as

bushes and plants. The ravages which they occasion are sometimes

incalculable; market gardens are sometimes entirely devastated. Fields

of lucerne have been seen partially destroyed by them; meadows of

great extent lose their pasturage; oat fields die off before they have

come to maturity; and many of the ears of corn fall before they are

cut.

In proportion as they increase in age and in strength--especially in

their last year--do they attack also ligneous vegetation. When they

have gnawed away the lateral roots of a young tree, the new shoots

corresponding to them dry up. The larvæ then attack the principal

root, and thus bring about the death of the tree. There will be found

round the roots of trees thus attacked immense numbers of these worms.

M. Deschiens relates that he had seen six hectares of acorns, sown

three times in the space of five years with a perfect result, entirely

destroyed as many times by the larvæ of the cockchafer. A nurseryman

of Bourg-la-Reine suffered, in 1854, from the ravages of these

terrible larvæ, losses which he estimated at 30,000 francs. Others

only preserved about a hundredth part of their plants. In Prussia they

destroyed, in 1835, a considerable nursery of trees in the _Institut

Forestier_. In the forests of Kolbetz more than a thousand measures of

wild pines were destroyed in the same way.

We shall not, then, be surprised to learn that the thunders of

excommunication were formerly launched at the cockchafers, as they

were also at the caterpillars and the locusts. We do not know whether

this had much impression upon them. In 1479, the cockchafers having

occasioned a famine in the country, were cited before the ecclesiastical

tribunal of Lausanne. The advocate (Fribourg) who defended them, did not

find, doubtlessly, in the resources of his eloquence arguments powerful

enough in their favour; for the tribunal, after mature deliberation,

condemned the accused troop, and sentenced them to be banished from the

territory. But it is not enough to pass a sentence--there must also be

the means of putting it in execution; and these were wanting to the

tribunal of Lausanne. And so the condemned cockchafers continued to live

on Swiss land, without appearing mindful of the condemnation which had

been fulminated against them.

The larvæ of the cockchafer are not easily destroyed. They

successfully resist those scourges which one fancies must harm them.

Thus, the inundation which devastated the banks of the Saône, fifteen

years ago, had no effect on them. The land and meadows, which had

remained for from four to five weeks under water, were none the more

rid of them. The only circumstance which is really hurtful to them,

and to the adult cockchafer, is late frost in the months of April and

May. When these frosts come after mild weather, they surprise the

larvæ at the surface of the soil, and kill them. Unfortunately, the

same causes do harm to the plants which have already begun to spring

up. Nature has not, then, sufficiently provided the means of

destroying these mischievous beings. One would say that she had not

foreseen their extraordinary multiplication, which has been, we must

confess, encouraged by agriculture and by the cultivation of the land.

Animals do not contribute much towards limiting the number of

cockchafers, although the latter are not wanting in natural enemies.

Among insects, it is the large species of _Carabus_ which search after

the larvæ as well as the adult cockchafers. The _Carabus auratus_

attacks them with great coolness. M. Blanchard saw a carabus seize a

cockchafer in the middle of the road, open its belly with its

mandibles, and devour its intestines. The cockchafer tossed about from

one side to the other, and even walked, while it was undergoing its

cruel punishment; and the _Carabus_ followed it without interrupting

its work. Some reptiles, many carnivorous animals, such as the

shrew-mouse, pole-cats, weasels, rats, and certain birds, especially

the night-birds, prey upon the cockchafer and its larvæ. Ravens and

magpies, which are seen going from clod to clod, make savage but

insufficient war against them. In fact, all these animals together do

not destroy the hundredth part of the cockchafers which are born every

year.

As an example which will show the extent of the evil, a field of 29

acres was ploughed up into 72 furrows. At the first ploughing were

gathered 300 larvæ per furrow; at the second, 250; at the third, 30

more; which amounted to 600 per furrow, and to 43,200 in all. Man, who

is the victim of these ravages, has been necessarily obliged to think

of a means of destroying this enemy. Many _infallible_ means have been

proposed, which have, however, given no result. Prizes have been

offered, but the evil has not diminished. Here are a few of the

processes recommended.

Immediately after the ploughing, you must turn into the field infested

by the larvæ a flock of turkeys, to whom it will be a great treat to

devour them, or else you must sow in the field rape-seed, very

thickly, which you must then bury by a very deep ploughing, when it is

as high as your hand. Colewort, it is said, kills the larvæ, while it

at the same time manures the soil. Or again, you must plough up the

land on the approach of hard frosts, to expose the worms to the cold.

Lastly, you can water the field with oil of coal, or sprinkle it with

ashes of boxwood. All these are expensive. The simplest means are here

the best. It is better to depend upon labour than destructive

substances, whose employment always presents inconveniences.

Considering the difficulties which oppose themselves to us in our

search after larvæ, we had better collect them in their adult state by

violently shaking the branches of the trees on which they doze during

the day, and then kill them in some way or other, thus destroying from

twenty to forty eggs with each female. A general cockchafer hunt,

rendered obligatory by a law, and encouraged by prizes, would be the

only efficacious means of opposing a pest which costs agriculture many

millions. This means would also be less costly than the turning up of

the land concealing the larvæ, when it is remembered that they prefer

land in full bearing.

In 1835 the General Council of La Sarthe voted a sum of 20,000 francs

for a cockchafer hunt. Nearly 600,000 litres were delivered in, thanks

to a prize of three centimes per litre. As a litre contains about 500

cockchafers, there were thus destroyed about 300,000,000 of them. It

is true that M. Romieu, then Prefect of La Sarthe, who was the

principal promoter of this excellent measure, became food for the wit

of the newspapers, and was represented dressed like a cockchafer in

the _Charivari_. Derision and ridicule are too often the reward of

useful ideas. In Switzerland were taken, in 1807, more than

150,000,000 of these insects. But these isolated measures were useless

in producing a durable result.

It has been tried to make use of cockchafers in industrial arts.

According to M. Farkas, they have succeeded, in Hungary, by boiling

them in water, in extracting from them an oil, which is used to grease

the wheels of carriages; and, according to M. Mulsant, the blackish

liquid which is contained in the oesophagus may be used for

painting. But the produce arising from these industrial occupations is

not considerable enough to ensure them a certain extension, which is

to be regretted, for agriculture would thus be rid of one of its most

formidable scourges. Poultry are sometimes fed on these insects; pigs

are also very fond of them.

The _Melolontha Hippocastani_ differs from the common species in

having black legs. The _Melolontha fullo_, twice as large as the

common species, is variegated with tawny and white. It is met with on

the sea-coasts, and on the downs of the north and south of France, as

its larvæ feed on the roots of maritime plants.

Among the genera very near to the cockchafer we will mention the

little _Rhizotrogus_, light-coloured and hairy, which flies in the

evening in the meadows, and the _Euchloras_, or _Anomalas_, of

splendid metallic colours. The _Anomala vitis_ is an insect of about

half an inch long, of a beautiful green, bordered by yellow, with the

elytra deeply furrowed. It sometimes causes extensive ravages in the

vineyards.

After the _Cetoniadæ_ and the Cockchafers, we come to the

_Scarabæidæ_, properly so called. The _Oryctes nasicornis_ (Fig. 435)

is very common all over Europe. It is about an inch long, of a

chestnut-brown, and perfectly smooth. The male has on the head a horn,

which is wanting in the female (Figs. 436, 437). Its larva, which is a

great whitish worm, larger than that of the cockchafer, lives in

rotten wood and in the tan which is employed in hot-houses and in

garden-frames. They were to be found by hundreds in the old hot-houses

of the Jardin des Plantes at Paris. The market-gardeners, who employ

the tannin of the oak bark, have rendered this Coleopteron very common

in the environs of that capital. Fig. 438 represents an exotic

species, the _Xylotrupes dichotomus_.

Among the true _Scarabæi_ we meet with many species of gigantic size,

especially in America. _Dynastes Hercules_, a great insect of a fine

ebony black, with its elytra of an olive grey, is not rare in the

Antilles. Its thorax is prolonged into a horn as long as its body, and

bent round at the extremity; its head has also a long horn standing

erect. The females want these appendages. Fig. 439 represents the

_Golofa claviger_ of Guyana.

[Illustration: Fig. 436.--Head of Oryctes nasicornis, male.]

[Illustration: Fig. 435.--Oryctes nasicornis, male.]

[Illustration: Fig. 437.--Head of Oryctes nasicornis, female.]

[Illustration: Fig. 438.--Xylotrupes dichotomus.]

The _Geotrupes_ are insects almost as common as the chafers. As their

name reminds us, they make holes in the ground, which they scoop out,

particularly in meadows, under cow-dung which has grown dry on the

surface. It is under the excrements of ruminating animals and horses

that they must be looked for. They fly especially at night, and may be

seen buzzing about on fine summer evenings in the vicinity of dung

heaps.

[Illustration: Fig. 439.--Golofa claviger.]

The _Geotrupes stercorarius_, the Shard-born Beetle, Clock, or

Dumbledor, is of a brilliant bluish black, and attains to a length of

about two-thirds of an inch. We may consider this Coleopteron as a

useful auxiliary of man in ridding the soil of excrementitious matter.

The genus _Trox_, which belongs to the same group, generally inhabits

sandy countries, and has its body nearly always covered with earth or

dust; it lives on vegetable substances, or on animal matter in a state

of decomposition. The habits of the genus _Copris_ resemble those of

_Geotrupes_; they live in excrement. The form of their clypeus, broad,

rounded, without teeth, and advancing over the mouth, suffices to

distinguish the kindred species. In the environs of Paris and in

England the _Copris lunaris_ is found. The larvæ of these insects form

a cocoon composed of earth and dung, before transforming themselves

into pupæ; this cocoon is more or less round, and acquires a great

hardness.

The species of the genus _Ateuchus_ collect portions of excrement,

which they make up into balls, and roll till they are as perfectly

rounded as pills, and in which they lay their eggs. This habit has

gained for these insects the name of pill-makers. Their hind legs seem

to be particularly adapted for this operation, for they are very long

and somewhat distant from the other legs, which gives to the

_Ateuchi_ a strange appearance, and makes it hard work for them to

walk. They walk backwards and often fall head over heels. They are

generally seen on declivities exposed to the greatest heat of the

sun, assembled together to the number of four or five, occupied in

rolling the same ball; so that it is impossible to know which is the

real proprietor of this rolling object. They seem not to know

themselves; for they roll indifferently the first ball which they meet

with, or near which they are placed.

[Illustration: Fig. 440.--Scarabæus (Golofa) Porteri.]

[Illustration: Fig. 441.--Scarabæus enema, or Enema infundibulum.]

The _Ateuchi_ are large flat insects, with a broad-toothed clypeus;

they all belong to the Ancient Continent. The type of the genus is the

_Ateuchus sacer_ (Fig. 442), the Sacred Scarabæus of the Egyptians.

This insect is black, and attains to a length of a little less than an

inch. It is to be found commonly enough in the south of France, in the

whole of southern Europe, Barbary, and Egypt. The paintings and

amulets of the ancient Egyptians very often represent it, and

sometimes give it a gigantic size. It is, doubtless, then, this

species which was an object of veneration with the Egyptians.

There exists another species, which is always represented as of a

magnificent golden green, and to which Herodotus also attributes this

colour. As it was not to be found in Egypt, it was thought for a long

while that the Egyptians had painted the black species of a more

splendid colour in order to pay it homage. But in 1819 M. Caillaud

actually found at Meroe, on the banks of the White Nile, the _Ateuchus

Ægyptiorum_, which resembles the _Ateuchus sacer_ much in colour, but

has a golden tint. Since then it has also been brought from Sennaar.

The two species were both probably sacred. Hor-Apollon, the learned

commentator on Egyptian hieroglyphics, thinks that this people, in

adopting the scarabæus as a religious symbol, wished to represent at

once, _a unique birth_--_a father_--_the world_--_a man_. The _unique

birth_ means that the scarabæus has no mother. A male wishing to

procreate, said the Egyptians, takes the dung of an ox, works it up

into a ball, and gives it the shape of the world, rolls it with its

hind legs from east to west, and places it in the ground, where it

remains twenty-eight days; the twenty-ninth day it throws its ball,

now open, into the water, and there comes forth a male scarabæus. This

explanation shows also why the scarabæus was employed to represent at

the same time a _father_, _a man_, and _the world_. There were,

however, according to the same author, three sorts of _Scarabæi_: one

was in the shape of a cat, and threw out brightly shining rays

(probably the Golden Scarabæus, _Ateuchus Ægyptiorum_); the two others

had horns; their description seems to refer to a _Copris_ and a

_Geotrupes_.

As other remarkable species of _Scarabæi_ we represent the _Scarabæus

enema_ (Fig. 441), with strong horns, the _Megacerus chorinæus_ (Fig.

443), the _Megalosoma anubis_ (Figs. 444 and 445), and the _Dynastes

Hercules_ (Fig. 446).

The last family of the _Scarabæidæ_ contains the _Lucanidæ_, or Stag

Beetles. These Coleoptera are of great size, and their head is armed

with enormous robust mandibles, which give them a ferocious air, which

their inoffensive habits do not in any way justify. They live in

half-rotten trees, the destruction of which they accelerate. Their

mandibles, of such prodigious size only in the male, are of more

inconvenience to them than they are of use, as they impede their

flight. Their strength enables them to raise considerable weights, but

they make no other use of them than to show their strength, which is

enormous. They do not attack other insects, and live only on vegetable

juices.

The common Stag Beetle (Figs. 447[121] and 448) attains to a length of

two inches, or more, including its mandibles, and is of a dark brown

chestnut colour. They are met with during the months of May, June, and

July, in large forests, climbing along trees and hooking themselves on

to the trunks by their mandibles. Charles De Geer says that the Stag

Beetle imbibes the honeyed liquid which is found on oak trees, a tree

it particularly seeks after, which has caused it to be called in

Swedish _Ek-Oxe_ (Oak ox). It is supposed that it eats the leaves

also. It sometimes attacks insects. Westwood says that it has been

seen to descend from a tree carrying a caterpillar in its mandibles.

Swammerdam had one which followed him like a dog when he offered it

honey. They only fly in the evening, holding themselves nearly

straight, so as not to see-saw. Their larvæ--which are whitish, with

russety heads, live in the interior of trees, their existence in that

state lasting nearly four years. Many naturalists think that the larva

of the _Lucanus_ was the _Cossus_ of the Romans, which figured on the

tables of the rich patricians, and particularly of Lucullus.

[121] The figure may possibly mislead, as it shows the larva

and pupa in the ground, for although recent observations show

that this species does occasionally undergo its metamorphoses

therein, it is not probable that the larva lives anywhere but

in wood.--ED.

[Illustration: Fig. 442.--The Sacred Scarabæus of the Egyptians

(_Ateuchus sacer_).]

[Illustration: Fig. 443.--Megacerus chorinæus.]

[Illustration: Fig. 444.--Megalosoma anubis (male).]

[Illustration: Fig. 445.--Megalosoma anubis (female).]

[Illustration: Fig. 446.--Dynastes Hercules.]

[Illustration: Fig. 447.--Common Stag Beetle (_Lucanus cervus_).]

Fig. 448 represents the Stag Beetle (_Lucanus cervus_); Fig. 449, an

exotic species, the _Lucanus (Homoderus) Mellyi_, from the Gabon; Fig.

450 the _Lucanus bellicosus_; and Fig. 451 another exotic species from

Celebes, _Dorcus Titan_.

[Illustration: Fig. 448.--Stag Beetle (_Lucanus cervus_).]

[Illustration: Fig. 449.--Lucanus (Homoderus) Mellyi.]

The _Syndesus cornutus_ (Fig. 452) of Tasmania, and the _Chiasognathus

Grantii_, from the coast of Chili (Fig. 453), of a beautiful golden

green, shot with copper, belong to genera akin to _Lucanus_.

We arrive now at the tribe of _Silphales_, which are still more useful

to man than the Dung Beetles (_Scarabæidæ_), since many of them

disencumber the soil of the carcases of animals in a state of

putrefaction. The most remarkable insects of this tribe are the

_Histers_, the _Silphas_, properly so called, and the _Necrophora_.

[Illustration: Fig. 450.--Lucanus bellicosus.]

The _Histers_ are small insects, to be recognised by their body being

almost round, smooth, and shining, with the elytra marked with striæ,

and their mandibles pretty well developed. They attain to a length of

about a fifth of an inch. The _Silphæ_, thus named on account of their

broad and rounded form, are of a large size (about half to

three-quarters of an inch), of a dark colour, and exhale a sickly

odour. When seized, they disgorge a blackish liquid. They introduce

themselves under the skin of the carcases of animals, and devour their

flesh to the very bone. The larvæ, flat and serrated, live like the

adults, in carrion. The commonest species is the _Silpha obscura_, of

an intense black, delicately dotted. Two species found in England and

in the environs of Paris, _Silpha quadripunctata_ and the _Silpha

thoracica_, climb trees and attack caterpillars. It appears to be

certain that the larva of the _Silpha obscura_ does a great deal of

damage to beet-root, whose leaves it devours. The _Necrodes_ come very

near to the _Silphæ_. They are distinguished from them by having the

hind legs larger. Only one, _Necrodes littoralis_, occurs in England.

Fig. 459 represents the _Necrodes lacrymosa_, from Australia. The

_Necrophori_, or Grave-diggers, are honest undertakers, who carefully

bury carcases left on the soil. As soon as they smell a field-mouse, a

mole, or a fish in a state of decomposition, they come by troops to

bury it, getting under the carcase, hollowing out the ground with

their legs, and projecting the rubbish they dig out in all directions.

Little by little the carcase sinks; at the end of twenty-four hours it

has generally disappeared into a hole five inches in depth, but the

_Necrophori_ sink it still lower--as far as from seven to ten inches

below the surface. They then mount it, cast the earth down into the

grave so as to fill it, and the females lay their eggs in the tomb,

where the larvæ will find an abundance of food. When the ground is too

hard to be dug, the _Necrophori_ push the carcase further, till they

find permeable soil. A mole has been run through with a stick, or else

tied by a string, to see how the _Necrophori_ would get over the

difficulty. They scooped out the soil underneath the stick, and cut

through the string, and the mole was buried in spite of the obstacles.

Fig. 460 represents a troop of _Necrophori_ burying a small rat.

[Illustration: Fig. 451.--Dorcus Titan.]

[Illustration: Fig. 452.--Syndesus cornutus.]

[Illustration: Fig. 453.--Chiasognathus Grantii.]

[Illustration: Fig. 454.--Hister rugosus.]

[Illustration: Fig. 455.--Silpha quadripunctata.]

[Illustration: Fig. 456.--Silpha thoracica.]

[Illustration: Fig. 457.--Necrodes littoralis (male).]

[Illustration: Fig. 458.--Necrodes littoralis (female).]

[Illustration: Fig. 459.--Necrodes lacrymosa.]

[Illustration: Fig. 460.--Burying Beetles (_Necrophorus vespillo_)

interring the body of a rat.]

The _Necrophorus vespillo_ (Fig. 461) is variegated with yellow and

black; the _Necrophorus Germanicus_ (Fig. 462) is larger, quite black,

and rarer. All these insects exhale a disagreeable musky smell. Their

bodies are often covered with parasites, which are carried along by

them by hooking on to their hairs, and which make use of the

_Necrophorus_ as a vehicle in which they get their food.

[Illustration: Fig. 461.--Necrophorus vespillo.]

[Illustration: Fig. 462.--Necrophorus Germanicus.]

[Illustration: Fig. 463.--Staphylinus (Ocypus) olens, imago, pupa, and

larva.]

The _Staphylinidæ_ live in the carcases of animals, on manure, in

detritus, and attack living insects. They are, for the most part, of

small size, and are distinguished by their elytra, which are short,

and resemble a waistcoat or a jacket; but their wings are fully

developed. The large species have strong mandibles. When irritated,

the _Staphylini_ disgorge an acrid black liquid; and by the abdomen

they emit a volatile fluid having a musky odour.

We see frequently on roads the _Staphylinus olens_ (Figs. 463 and

464), which, when it finds itself attacked, raises its abdomen, and

thrusts out two little whitish bladders, which pour out a volatile

liquid. Its larva lives under stones, and its habits are the same as

those of the adult insect. It is very carnivorous, and very active,

and often attacks those of its own kind. The _Staphylinus hirtus_

(Fig. 466) resembles at a distance a humble-bee, on account of its

long yellow hairs. The _Staphylinus maxillosus_ (Fig. 465) has black

and white hairs. The genera _Pselaphus_ and _Claviger_, akin to the

above, contain little insects which live as parasites in the nests of

ants. The _Pselaphus Heisii_ (Fig. 467), less than a line long, lives

on the _débris_ of reeds, on the borders of marshes.

[Illustration: Fig. 464.--Staphylinus (Ocypus) olens.]

The _Claviger foveolatus_ (Fig. 468) is met with in the nest of a

little yellow ant, which takes as much care of it as of its own

progeny, because the _Claviger_ secretes a liquid very much

appreciated by ants, who are continually occupied in licking its back.

[Illustration: Fig. 465.--Staphylinus maxillosus.]

[Illustration: Fig. 466.--Staphylinus hirtus.]

[Illustration: Fig. 467.--Pselaphus Heisii (magnified).]

[Illustration: Fig. 468.--Claviger foveolatus (magnified).]

The _Dermestidæ_ attack by preference the tendons and the skins of

carcases. A few of the insects of this family are the plague of our

collections and the furriers. They devour a quantity of dry

substances--skins, feathers, catgut, hair, objects made of

tortoise-shell, the dried bodies of insects, &c. Some other

_Dermestidæ_ feed on animal matter still fresh: such is the Bacon

Beetle, _Dermestes lardarius_ (Fig. 469), which is to be met with in

some dirty pork-shops. It is black, with the base of its elytra tawny

and marked with three black spots. The larvæ are covered with a

russety hair; they eat bacon, skins, and also attack each other. The

perfect insect does no damage. Like all the _Dermestidæ_, it

counterfeits death when handled. The _Dermestes vulpinus_, of a tawny

grey, injures furs; and the Hudson's Bay Company, whose storehouses in

London were infested by this insect, offered a reward of £20,000 for a

means of destroying this insect. The furriers have also cause to dread

the _Attagenus pellio_ (Fig. 470), whose larva, covered with yellowish

hairs, has at its extremity a sort of broom, which assists it in

moving.

[Illustration: Fig. 469.--Bacon Beetle (_Dermestes lardarius_),

magnified and natural size.]

[Illustration: Fig. 470.--Attagenus pellio, magnified and natural size.]

The _Anthrenus museorum_, the fifteenth of an inch in length, black,

with three grey bands, drives collectors to despair, for its larva

destroys their collections. It is covered with grey and brownish

hairs, which it bristles up the moment it is touched. The perfect

insect feeds on flowers, and counterfeits death when seized. All

possible means have been tried for getting rid of the _Anthrenus_ by

placing in the collection camphor, benzine, tobacco, sulphur, &c., but

benzine very soon destroys them.

[Illustration: Fig. 471.--Hydrophilus piceus.]

The _Hydrophili_, very different to the group which we shall presently

consider, are herbivorous, and are to be found on the leaves of

aquatic plants. The _Hydrophilus piceus_ (Fig. 471), which attains to

an inch in length, is common in our fresh waters. It must not be

seized without taking precautions, as its breast is provided with a

strong point, which pierces the skin. It draws in air by thrusting its

antennæ out of the water, and placing them against its body, the

bubbles of the air, which get involved in a sort of furrow, slip under

the body, and fix themselves to the hair, in such a manner that the

animal seems to be clothed in pearls. It is thus the air reaches the

spiracles. The female of the _Hydrophilus_ is sometimes seen clinging

to aquatic plants, head downwards, forming her cocoon, terminated by a

long pedicle, in which she places her eggs, by means of the two

bristles situated at the extremity of the abdomen (Fig. 472). After

having drawn this after her for some time, she leaves it to itself in

calm water. At the end of a fortnight there come out from it little

brown larvæ, very active, which ascend the water plants. These larvæ

are at the same time herbivorous and carnivorous. They live on plants

and small molluscs, which they seize from underneath, and whose shell

they break by pressing them against their back, to extract from it the

animal. If attacked, they emit a black liquid, which discolours the

water, and enables them to escape. At the end of two months the larva

comes out of the water, and burrows into the ground to undergo its

metamorphosis into a pupa (Fig. 473), which becomes a perfect insect a

month afterwards. The latter gets its colour little by little, and

comes out of the ground at the end of twelve days. According to M.

Dumeril, the intestine of the larva grows gradually longer and longer,

and its diet becomes that of herbs, the adult preferring vegetable

food to animal matter. It is at the end of summer that the

_Hydrophilus piceus_ becomes perfect, and it passes the winter in a

state of torpor at the bottom of the water. The females lay in the

month of April. A small species, _Hydrous caraboides_, is commoner

than the large one; its body is more rounded behind.

[Illustration: Fig. 472.--Bristles at the extremity of the abdomen of

the Hydrophilus.]

[Illustration: Fig. 473.--Pupa of the Hydrophilus.]

We are now going to consider a series of aquatic and carnivorous

insects; the _Dytisci_, Water Beetles, the _Cybisters_, and the

_Gyrinidæ_, or Whirligig Beetles. These are perfect corsairs, whose

rapacity even exceeds that of many of the land Coleoptera. Not

contented with devouring one another, when pressed by hunger, with

attacking especially the larvæ of all aquatic insects, such as the

_Libellulæ_ and _Ephemeræ_, they feed also on molluscs, on tadpoles,

and on small fish. It is easy to rear them in captivity. If confined

in a small aquarium, their habits would be much more amusing than a

few golden fish, which one meets with everywhere, and which are only

good enough to amuse European _Schaabahams_. Care must be taken to

cover the aquarium at the top with gauze, to prevent the perfect

insects from escaping. This tribe is not very numerous nor varied in

its forms. An oval body, legs curved and widened into oars, provided

with hairs, distinguish the insects which compose it. They imbibe air

at the surface of the water.

[Illustration: Fig. 474.--Dytiscus marginalis, male and female, and

front leg of male magnified.]

The most carnivorous of this group are the _Dytisci_ and the

_Cybisters_. They may be called the sharks of the insect world.

Nothing which lives in the water is safe against the voracity of the

_Dytiscus_. They attack small molluscs, young fish, tadpoles, larvæ of

insects, and suck greedily the bits of raw meat which are thrown to

them. They may be kept in an aquarium for many years by feeding them

on animal matter. Their oval-shaped body, with its sharp sides,

permits them to cut through the water with great ease--the hind legs

serving as oars. They are to be found in stagnant waters during the

greatest part of the year, but principally in autumn. During the

winter they bury themselves in the mud and under moss. The females lay

their eggs in the water. The larvæ are long, swelling out at the

middle, furnished with hairs, and grow rapidly. To undergo their

metamorphosis into pupæ they bury themselves in the earth.

[Illustration: Fig. 475.--Pupa and larva of Dytiscus marginalis.]

[Illustration: Fig. 476.--Dytiscus latissimus.]

[Illustration: Fig. 477.--Cybister Roeselii.]

The perfect insects are amphibious, and fly from one pond to another

to satisfy their voracious appetites. The most common species of this

genus is the _Dytiscus marginalis_ (Fig. 474), of a dark greenish

brown, yellowish on the sides. The elytra of the male are smooth;

those of the female are fluted. The front leg of the male is provided

with suckers. The larva is brown; the pupa of a dirty white.

[Illustration: Fig. 478.--Acilius sulcatus (male).]

[Illustration: Fig. 479.--Acilius sulcatus (female).]

[Illustration: Fig. 480.--Acilius fasciatus (male).]

[Illustration: Fig. 481.--Acilius fasciatus (female).]

[Illustration: Fig. 482.--Noterus crassicornis.]

The _Dytiscus marginalis_ sometimes attacks _Hydrophilus piceus_. It

pierces it between the head and the thorax, that is, in the weak point

of the cuirass, and devours it, in spite of its being the stronger.

The largest of the _Dytisci_, the _Dytiscus latissimus_ (Fig. 476), is

almost confined to the north of Europe. The _Cybisters_ abound

especially in warm countries. The _Cybister Roeselii_ (Fig. 477), a

European species, has the reputation of having been taken in England.

This group contains also a great number of insects more or less

resembling the preceding in their conformation and habits. We will

confine ourselves to representing a few by figures.

[Illustration: Fig. 483.--Colymbetes cinereus.]

[Illustration: Fig. 484.--Colymbetes notatus.]

[Illustration: Fig. 485.--Colymbetes striatus.]

[Illustration: Fig. 486.--Haliplus fulvus.]

[Illustration: Fig. 487.--Hydroporus griseo-striatus.]

[Illustration: Fig. 488.--Hydroporus confluens.]

[Illustration: Fig. 489.--Suphis cimicoides.]

[Illustration: Fig. 490.--Laccophilus variegatus.]

[Illustration: Fig. 491.--Laccophilus minutus.]

[Illustration: Fig. 492.--Hydaticus grammicus.]

[Illustration: Fig. 493.--Pelobius Hermanni.]

[Illustration: Fig. 494.--Gyrinus natator.]

[Illustration: Fig. 495.--Larva of Gyrinus natator.]

The _Gyrinidæ_, which come very near to the _Dytiscidæ_, like water

which is clear and a little agitated. They are small black insects,

living in troops, and which swim with rapidity, describing incessantly

capricious circles, which has gained for them the name of "Whirligigs."

They are remarkable for the disposition of their eyes, which are double;

so that the _Gyrinidæ_ seem to have four eyes. The lower ones look into

the water and watch for the prey or the fish that advances as an enemy;

whilst the upper eyes look upwards towards the air, and warn the insect

of the approach of enemies from above. To escape from fish, the

_Gyrinus_ jumps out of the water, and also makes use of its wings; to

escape from birds it dives rapidly. This activity, and this double

sight, make the capture of the _Gyrini_ a task of great difficulty. They

must be caught with a net. At the moment of being seized they emit a

milky and foetid liquid.

The females lay their eggs end to end, on the leaves of aquatic

plants. The larvæ are long and narrow, and of a dirty white. They come

out of the water at the end of the summer, and form for themselves a

cocoon on the plants bordering the banks. After a month, the perfect

insect is hatched, and plunges into the water. The _Gyrinus striatus_

(Fig. 496) is found in the waters of southern Europe.

All these species are of small size, and do not exceed a fifth of an

inch in length; but in the tropics we find _Gyrini_ two-thirds of an

inch long. One of these species, _distinctus_, exists in the little

lake of Solazies, in Réunion Island, noted for its mineral waters. The

visitors amuse themselves by fishing for this insect with a line

baited with a bit of red cloth, which it attacks. It is found also in

a mineral spring in Algeria. The _Epinecti_ (Fig. 498) are large

_Gyrinidæ_ from Brazil, with very long front legs.

[Illustration: Fig. 496.--Gyrinus striatus.]

[Illustration: Fig. 497.--Gyrinus distinctus.]

[Illustration: Fig. 498.--Epinectus sulcatus.]

The carnivorous land insects _par excellence_--those which are most

formidable, on account of their ravages and voracity--are the

_Carabidæ_. This family, one of the most numerous of the Order

Coleoptera, consists of insects with long legs, and armed with

powerful mandibles, suited for tearing their victims to pieces. They

are the lions and the tigers of the Coleoptera, whilst the

_Necrophori_ and the _Silphæ_ play the part of hyænas and jackals. The

eyes of the _Carabidæ_ are very prominent, which allows them to see

their prey at a great distance. They take refuge under stones and

under the bark of trees; but in fine weather they are also to be seen

running along roads. Ardent and audacious, it is by no means rare to

see them attacking species much bigger than themselves. The activity

which distinguishes these insects is found also in their larvæ, which

pursue living prey, instead of remaining shrouded in the midst of

their food, like the larvæ of the _Scarabæidæ_.

These carnivorous insects are very numerous--a fortunate circumstance,

considering the immense quantity of small noxious creatures,

caterpillars, weevils, and an infinity of other parasites, the pests

of agriculture, which they destroy. The popular prejudice, then, is to

be regretted, which leads ignorant farmers to exterminate them. They

ought, on the contrary, to be introduced into market gardens, as toads

are, and as cats are into granaries. "The _Carabidæ_," says M.

Michelet, "immense tribes of warriors, armed to the teeth, which,

under their heavy cuirasses, have a wonderful activity, are perfect

rural constabulary, day and night, without holidays or repose,

protecting our fields. They never touch the smallest thing. They are

occupied entirely in arresting thieves, and they desire no salary but

the body of the thief himself." But ignorance destroys these useful

hunters. Children, seduced by the richness of the elytra of the

_Carabi_, amuse themselves in catching these vigilant protectors of

our farms, without knowing the bad effect of what they are doing.

Fortunately, education is spreading little by little in the country;

the farmers begin to be awakened to their true interests, and to know

how to distinguish the useful animals which it behoves them to

preserve in their fields for the safeguard of their crops. In some

places in France they have already made attempts to introduce the

_Carabidæ_ and the _Cicindelidæ_ into gardens, and they have found

them succeed very well.

The true _Carabi_ are to be known by their oval convex body, their

long antennæ, and elegantly-carved thorax. They are, in general, of

more massive forms than the _Cicindelidæ_, which compose a kindred

family. The latter form, in some sort, the vanguard and the light

troops; the others, the heavy battalions. The _Carabi_ coming out in

general at night, or at least at twilight, and keeping themselves

hidden under stones during the day, it is not easy to observe their

manoeuvres.

The _Carabus auratus_ (Fig. 499), which abounds in fields and gardens

on the Continent, may be considered as the type of this genus. It has

elytra of a beautiful green, with three ribs, and the legs yellowish.

When it is touched it disgorges a black and acrid saliva, and ejects

from the abdomen a corrosive liquid of a disagreeable odour. It lives

on the larvæ of other insects. It has been seen to attack even large

insects, such as the cockchafer.

[Illustration: Fig. 499.--Carabus auratus.]

[Illustration: Fig. 500.--Carabus violaceus.]

[Illustration: Fig. 501.--Carabus canaliculatus.]

[Illustration: Fig. 502.--Carabus Adonis.]

[Illustration: Fig. 503.--Carabus nodulosus.]

[Illustration: Fig. 504.--Larva of Carabus auronitens.]

[Illustration: Fig. 505.--Calosoma auropunctata.]

[Illustration: Figs. 506, 507.--Pupa and larva of Calosoma auropunctata.]

In England and the environs of Paris, _Carabus violaceus_ (Fig. 500),

whose dress, of a sombre colour, is surrounded by shades of red and

violet, is met with. In the Pyrenees many _Carabi_ with metallic

reflections are found, whose beautiful colours are the delight of

collectors; the _Carabus splendens_, the _Carabus rutilans_, &c. But the

most beautiful insects of this tribe come from Siberia and the north of

China. Let us mention, for example, the _Carabus smaragdinus_, of a

beautiful grass-green; the _Carabus Vietinghovii_, of a beautiful blue

black, bordered with azure, with a golden band, &c.

[Illustration: Fig. 508.--Calosoma sycophanta pursuing a Bombardier

Beetle (_Brachinus explodens_).]

The _Carabus Adonis_ (Fig. 502) is not rare in Alsace, and is found on

the banks of streams.

The long flat larvæ of the _Carabi_ live in the trunks of trees, among

leaves, under moss, &c. They are active, and live on other insects.

Fig. 504 represents the larva of the _Carabus auronitens_.

Another genus of the same family is _Calosoma_. They have wings under

their elytra--the true _Carabi_ have not--which they use in passing

from one tree to another.

In the month of June is to be found on oak trees the beautiful

_Calosoma sycophanta_ (Fig. 508), the occasional occurrence of which

in England is unquestionable; it is, however, presumed that the

specimens have reached our shores from the Continent by flight,

favoured by strong easterly winds. This insect is of a beautiful

violet blue, having the antennæ and the legs black, and the elytra of

a splendid golden green, with longitudinal streaks. According to

Réaumur, the larva of the _Calosoma_ often chooses a home in the nest

of the Procession-Moth Caterpillar (_Bombyx processionea_), on oak

trees, and it very soon rids the tree which is infested by them.

[Illustration: Fig. 509.--Procrustes coriaceus.]

[Illustration: Fig. 510.--Procerus gigas.]

[Illustration: Fig. 511.--Omophron libatum.]

[Illustration: Fig. 512.--Nebria arenaria.]

The _Calosoma auropunctata_ is found in the south of France. Its larva

(Fig. 507) devours snails, and establishes itself in their shells.

These larvæ have been known to fill themselves so full of food as to

become double their natural size, in which state they are sometimes

devoured by those of their own species. A smaller kind, the _Calosoma

inquisitor_, is very frequently to be met with in woods. Fig. 508

presents _Calosoma sycophanta_ pursuing a Bombardier (_Brachinus

explodens_), which squirts out a vapour of pungent odour.

In the countries of the south-east of Europe, and in Asia Minor, one

finds enormous _Carabidæ_, the _Procrustes_ and the _Proceri_, which

attain nearly two inches in length, and whose integuments resemble

very rough shagreen. One species alone is met with in France, the

_Procrustes coriaceus_ (Fig. 509). In Austria is found the _Procerus

gigas_ (Fig. 510).

The genus _Omophron_ (Fig. 511) contains small, almost globular

_Carabidæ_ of a pale yellow, with green lines, and which live in the

sand bordering rivers. The _Nebrias_ in general prefer mountainous

countries. The largest species, the _Nebria arenaria_ (Fig. 512), is

found all along the coast of the Mediterranean, and even on the

western shores of France. But its colours grow paler as it advances

northward on the African coast. It is of a bright yellow with black

lines. The _Nebrias_ hide themselves either under masses of seaweed

cast up by the waves, or under the stumps of trees cast ashore by the

sea. When they are deprived of their place of shelter, they run away

with such rapidity that it is very difficult to catch them. In Senegal

is found the genus _Tefflus_ (Fig. 513), great black _Carabidæ_ with

fluted elytra.

Other kindred genera are--_Damaster_ (Fig. 514), remarkable for

elongated pointed elytra; _Anthia_ (Fig. 515), which is met with in

sand in Africa and in India, and whose head is armed in a formidable

manner; and _Campylocnemis_, of which _Schroeteri_ (Fig. 516), an

Australian insect, of a bright black, attains to more than an inch and

three quarters in length, and whose short serrated legs enable it to

hollow out the ground. There is found on the coasts of the south of

France a representative of this group in the _Scarites lævigatus_

(Fig. 517), which conceals itself in a hollow, like the cricket, and

devours everything which comes within its reach.

[Illustration: Fig. 513.--Tefflus Megerlei.]

[Illustration: Fig. 514.--Damaster blaptoides.]

The innumerable tribe of _Harpalidæ_ contains carnivorous beetles of

very small size, sometimes of a bronze-green, sometimes black, either

dull or shining, and which render great service to our gardens. Hidden

under stones, in dry leaves, at the foot of trees, they attack a

number of small insects, caterpillars, millepedes, &c., and thus

exterminate a quantity of vermin. The _Harpalus æneus_ (Fig. 518),

which is seen shining in the midst of the paving stones like a little

bronze plate, is found everywhere. The _Galeritas_ (Figs. 519 and 520)

are distinguished by their antennæ, which are thick at the base; they

exhale a very strong odour: nearly all are peculiar to America. One of

the most curious insects of this tribe is the _Mormolyce phyllodes_ of

Java (Fig. 521) whose elytra project in such a manner as to give it

the appearance of a leaf. It lives under bark. The larva and the pupa

(Fig. 522) resemble those of other genera of which we have been

speaking.

[Illustration: Fig. 515.--Anthia thoracica.]

[Illustration: Fig. 516.--Campylocnemis Schroeteri.]

The next great family of the tribe of carnivorous beetles is composed

of the _Cicindelidæ_--slender insects, with large prominent heads,

very long legs, and which are very active in their movements. The

_Cicindelidæ_ like sandy plains. When the sun shines they fly in a

zig-zag manner, but their flight is not continued for long together.

In dull weather they are to be seen running on the turf or hiding

themselves in holes, and are met with on the sea-shore, where they

are seen sometimes to pop up by hundreds. They live on flies and

little shrimps, which abound on the sea-shore.

[Illustration: Fig. 517.--Scarites lævigatus.]

[Illustration: Fig. 518.--Harpalus æneus.]

[Illustration: Fig. 519.--Larva of Galerita Lecontei.]

[Illustration: Fig. 520. Galerita Lecontei.]

[Illustration: Fig. 521.--Mormolyce phyllodes.]

[Illustration: Fig. 522.--Larva and pupa of Mormolyce phyllodes.]

[Illustration: Fig. 523.--Tiger Beetle (_Cicindela campestris_).]

The _Cicindela campestris_ (Fig. 523), or Tiger Beetle, is of a

beautiful green, spotted with white; the abdomen is of a bronze red.

In this country it is the commonest of the genus. The _Cicindela

hybrida_, of a dull green, relieved by light bands, inhabits sandy

woods. The _Cicindela maritima_ differs from the preceding. The

_Cicindela sylvatica_, which flies very well, is not easy to catch,

and is to be often met with in the warm glades of the forest of

Fontainebleau and at Montmorency; it is not unfrequent here. Its

colour is brown, spotted with white; it diffuses a strong smell of the

rose, to which succeeds, on being seized, the acrid odour of the

secretion which it disgorges. We here represent the _Cicindela

Dumoulinii_ (Fig. 524), the _Cicindela rugosa_ (Fig. 525), the

_Cicindela scalaris_ (Fig. 526), the _Cicindela heros_ (Fig. 527), the

_Cicindela quadrilineata_ (Fig. 528), and the _Cicindela capensis_

(Fig. 529).

[Illustration: Fig. 524.--Cicindela Dumoulinii.]

[Illustration: Fig. 525.--Cicindela rugosa.]

[Illustration: Fig. 526.--Cicindela scalaris.]

The ferocity of these insects is remarkable. They quickly tear off the

wings and legs of their victim, and suck out the contents of its

abdomen. Often, when they are disturbed in this agreeable occupation,

not wishing to leave it, they fly away with their prey; their flight,

however, is not sufficiently powerful to allow of their carrying to

any great distance such a heavy burden. When a _Cicindela_ is seized

between the fingers, it moves about its mandibles and endeavours to

pinch, but its bite is inoffensive and not very painful. They are

prodigiously active in running. Armed with jaws which are powerful

enough to overcome their victims and to seize them at once, they can

dispense with stratagem.

[Illustration: Fig. 527.--Cicindela heros.]

[Illustration: Fig. 528.--Cicindela quadrilineata.]

[Illustration: Fig. 529.--Cicindela capensis.]

[Illustration: Fig. 530.--Larva of Cicindela campestris.]

[Illustration: Fig. 531.--Ambush of larva of Cicindela campestris.]

Their larvæ (Fig. 530) are soft, and have short legs. To satisfy their

voracity they are obliged to lie in ambush in holes. They are

two-thirds of an inch long; their head is horny and in the form of a

trapezium. The first segment is also horny, and of a metallic green.

The eighth has a pair of tubercles with hooks, of which the larva

makes use in ascending and descending its vertical hole, like a sweep

in a chimney. This hole (Fig. 531) is a foot or more deep. To dig it,

the larva employs its mandibles and its legs in the following manner:

it twists itself round, loads with earth the flat surface which covers

its head, climbs along the chimney by twisting itself into the form

of the letter Z, and thus transports its load, as a bricklayer's

labourer carries a hod of mortar up a ladder. Arrived at the mouth of

the hole, it throws to a distance the rubbish with which its head is

loaded; or, if too heavy, it simply deposits it, pushing it away as

far as possible. It is difficult to watch their proceedings, for they

are very mistrustful, and retire immediately into their hole when

alarmed. They remain in ambush at the entrances of these subterranean

passages, which they hermetically seal with their head and thorax. It

is a species of pitfall which sets itself in motion the moment

anything endeavours to pass it. The unfortunate who ventures is

precipitated into the well, and the _Cicindela_ forthwith devours it.

These habits remind one of those of the ant-lion. When the time

arrives for the metamorphosis, the larva of the _Cicindela_ enlarges

the bottom of its hole, and stops up the entrance with earth before

changing. The pupa (Figs. 532, 533) is of a pale glossy yellow,

covered with small spines. The metamorphosis takes place between

August and October; the perfect insect emerges in spring.

[Illustration: Fig. 532.--Pupa of a Cicindela (Upper-side).]

[Illustration: Fig. 533.--Pupa of a Cicindela (Under-side).]

[Illustration: Fig. 534.--Tetracha Klugii.]

[Illustration: Fig. 535.--Tetracha oxychiloides.]

[Illustration: Fig. 536.--Tetracha bifasciata.]

Nearly akin to the _Cicindelas_ are the _Tetrachas_ (Figs. 534, 535,

536), from Africa and tropical America; the _Manticoras_ (Fig. 537),

which are distinguished by their robust and thick-set appearance;

the _Pogonostomas_ (Fig. 538), which live in Madagascar; the

_Ctenostomas_, peculiar to America (Fig. 539), remarkable for the

length of their pendent and bristly palpi; the _Omus_, of California;

the _Therates_ (Fig. 540), insects of the East Indian Islands, &c.

The tribe of _Tenebrionidæ_, called formerly _Melasomas_, because they

are nearly all black, resembles in some points the _Carabici_. They

seek after dark places, and avoid the light, and are found on the

ground under stones; their movements are slow, and they walk with

difficulty. The best-known insect of this group is the _Blaps_, of

repulsive smell, inhabiting dark damp places, such as cellars, and

only coming out of its retreat during the night. The elytra are

joined together, and they have no wings. The vulgar regard them as an

omen of ill-luck. Fig. 541 represents the _Blaps obtusa_. According to

the report of a traveller, the women in Egypt eat the _Blaps sulcata_

cooked with butter, to make them fat. They are employed also against

the ear-ache, the bite of scorpions, &c.

Another genus of the same family is the _Tenebrio_ (Fig. 542), of a

blackish-brown, with the elytra striated, and of half an inch in

length. The larvæ, the well-known meal-worms, live in flour; they are

cylindrical, and of a light tawny colour (Fig. 542). The insect which

is considered as a type of the tribe of the _Pimelides_ is the

_Pimelia bipunctata_, which is common in the south of France.

[Illustration: Fig. 537--Manticora tuberculata.]

[Illustration: Fig. 538.--Pogonostoma gracilis.]

We come now to the tribe of blistering beetles, of which the best

known is the Cantharides (_Cantharis_ or _Lytta_). These insects are

generally of soft consistency, and their elytra very flexible. A few

remain constantly on trees. All are very brisk and active. When

swallowed they are a dangerous poison, but are used in medicine for

making blisters.

[Illustration: Fig. 539.--Ctenostoma rugosa.]

[Illustration: Fig. 540.--Therates labiata.]

[Illustration: Fig. 541.--Blaps obtusa.]

[Illustration: Fig. 542.--Tenebrio molitor (larva and imago).]

The Cantharides of commerce (_Cantharis_ [_Lytta_] _vesicatoria_) are

of a beautiful green, attain to a size of four-fifths of an inch, and

are found on ash-trees, lilacs, and other shrubs. Commerce for a long

time brought them from Spain, and some still come from that country;

hence the common name of _Spanish fly_. As they live in great numbers

together, collecting them is easier and less expensive than would be

that of other species of the same family which are not gregarious, but

which have the same medicinal properties. The presence of the

Cantharides is manifested by the strong penetrating odour which they

diffuse to some distance. When, by aid of this smell, they are

discovered, generally settled on an ash, they are collected in the

following manner:--Very early in the morning a cloth of light tissue

is stretched out at the foot of the tree, and the branches are shaken,

which causes the insects to fall (PLATE XII.). These, numbed by the

cold of the night, do not try to escape. When there is a sufficient

quantity, the four corners are drawn up and the whole plunged into a

tub of vinegar diluted with water. This immersion causes the death of

the insects. They then carry them to a loft, or under a very airy

shed. To dry them they spread them out on hurdles covered with linen

or paper, and from time to time, to facilitate the operation, they are

moved about, either with a stick or with the hand, which is more

convenient; but it is then necessary to take the precaution of putting

on gloves, for, if touched with the naked hand, they would cause more

or less serious blisters. The same precaution must be observed in

gathering them.

When the Cantharides are quite dry, they put them into wooden boxes or

vessels of glass or earthenware hermetically sealed, and preserve them

in a place protected from damp. With these precautions, they may be

kept for a long while without losing any of their caustic properties.

Dumeril made blisters of Cantharides which had been twenty-four years

in store, and which had lost none of their energy. When dry, they are

so light that a kilogramme contains nearly 13,000 insects. Aretius, a

physician who flourished at Rome in the first century of our era,

seems to have been the first to employ Cantharides, reduced to powder,

as a means of vesication. Hippocrates administered them internally in

cases of dropsy, apoplexy, and jaundice. But it is pretty nearly

established that the Cantharides of the ancients were not the same

species used at the present day; they were, probably, a kindred

species, the _Mylabris chicorii_. A blistering principle has been

extracted from these insects, called _Cantharadine_. This organic

product presents itself under the form of little shining flakes,

without colour, soluble in ether or oil. One atom of this matter

applied to the skin, and particularly to the lower lip, makes the

epidermis rise instantaneously, and produces a small blister filled

with a watery liquid. In spite of the corrosive principle which the

_Cantharis_ contains, it is attacked, like other dried insects, by the

_Dermestes_ and the _Anthrenus_, which feast on them without suffering

the smallest inconvenience.

[Illustration: XII. Gathering Cantharides.]

The _Stylopidæ_, for which Kirby,[122] in 1811, instituted a distinct

Order, which he called _Strepsiptera_, in allusion to the contortion

of the elytra, and to which Latreille[123] subsequently applied the

name of _Rhipiptera_, are, perhaps, the most anomalous of all insects.

Great diversity of opinion has existed respecting their affinities;

but modern systematists, with but few exceptions, concur in referring

them to the Order _Coleoptera_, and locating them in proximity to

_Meloë_. In the larva state, all the known species of the family

inhabit the bodies of hymenopterous insects of the genera _Andrena_,

_Polistes_, &c., in this particular resembling the dipterous genus

_Conops_, which inhabits the body of humble bees,[124] and apparently

in no way inconveniencing their victims; a fact which has been

accounted for on the supposition that their existence in the larva

state is but short, and that their attacks being directed against the

abdomen, and not the thorax, the seat of life in insects, their

presence does not affect the activity of the victim. The larva has a

soft fusiform body, surmounted by a somewhat globose head. While

feeding, the head is towards the base of the abdomen; but on changing

to a pupa, this position is reversed, and the head--at first of light

brown, but which after a short time becomes black--thrust out between

the plates of the abdomen.

[122] "On a new Order of Insects," _Linn. Trans._, vol. xi.

[123] In Cuvier, "Le Règne Animal," ed. i., tome iii., p. 584.

[124] See p. 69.

The imagos, which are of small size, namely, about the eighth of an

inch long, are found during May and June. They have four wings, but

the anterior pair, of hard texture, somewhat resembling elytra, but

hardly answering to them in structure, are very poorly developed, and

curled round the front pair of legs, hence the name bestowed, by

Kirby, from [Greek: strepssis], a twisting, and [Greek: pteron], a

wing; the posterior wings are fully developed, and fold up like a fan,

whence the Order received the name of _Rhipiptera_ from Latreille. The

eyes, the facettes of which are few in number, are placed on a

footstalk, whence the name of the genus _Stylops_. The parts of the

mouth connect the Strepsiptera with the mandibulated insects, although

by some supposed to bear analogy by their functions to those parts in

the Diptera. The male only is winged; the female is very like an

apodal larva, the larva being an active hexapod.

The family _Stylopidæ_ is divided into four genera, of which two only,

_Xenos_ and _Stylops_, were described by Kirby in the essay referred

to above. First, _Xenos_, from [Greek: xenos], a guest, the most

prolific in species, of which _Xenos Rossii_, sometimes called

_vesparum_, may be taken as the type. Secondly, _Elenchus_, of which

_Elenchus Walkeri_ is the type. Thirdly, _Stylops_ (Fig. 543),

parasitical on various species of _Andrenæ_, of which _Stylops

Melittæ_, having a fleshy abdomen and the wings longer than the body,

may be considered typical: and lastly, _Halictophagus_, of which only

one species, infesting _Halictus æratus_[125] named _Halictophagus

Curtisii_, is known to exist, and which makes its appearance in the

month of August.

[125] _Halictus_ and _Andrena_ are two genera of Bees.

[Illustration: Fig. 543.--Stylops (magnified).]

These singular insects are found in various parts of the

world--Europe, Australia, and America. They were discovered by

Professor Peck almost simultaneously with Mr. Kirby's discovery in

this country, and to whom he sent specimens of a species which has

received the name of _Xenos Peckii_ lately, in New Zealand and

elsewhere.

Siebold, in 1843, having obtained some eggs, was able to observe the

larvæ, and he soon discovered that the females of Stylops, one of the

Strepsiptera, were blind, had no legs, and always retained the

appearance of larvæ, and that they never quitted the bodies of those

insects, in which they pass a parasitic existence. George Newport paid

great attention to the history of these curious insects, and when he

wrote his article, "Insecta," in the "Cyclopædia of Anatomy and

Physiology," four distinct genera of these minute parasites had

already been discovered. One of the largest species (_Stylops

Spencii_) is scarcely more than two lines in length, while the

smallest species yet known is not more than two-thirds of a line, or

scarcely a line in breadth with its wings expanded. They undergo

metamorphosis; and the males, when they have become perfect insects,

fly and roam about, but the females are condemned to a perfectly quiet

life. The head and the thoracic segments of the bodies of these last

are united completely, but the abdomen, which is very large, always

remains soft, so that the whole of the body only appears to be formed

of two portions. They are ovo-viviparous insects, and the young larvæ

escape as such from the body of the mother. They are active creatures,

and, being furnished with long legs, crawl over the hairs and skin of

the hymenopterous insect they are parasitic upon. They behave like the

larvæ of Meloë and Sitaris, whose peculiar methods of life have been

noticed in our description of the Coleoptera. Clinging on to a wasp or

a bee, they are carried off, and finally arrive in the nest or hive,

as the case may be, and there they attack the larvæ. When once fixed

upon the hymenopterous larvæ, they undergo a change of skin, and their

shape then becomes totally different, and their legs are atrophied.

But these parasites being exceedingly small, do not kill the larvæ;

they suck their juices, after the manner of the Ichneumons, and do not

interfere with the metamorphoses of the insects upon which they are

parasitic. On the right hand, in the accompanying engraving (Fig.

544), there is a larva much magnified, lately born, and climbing upon

the hair of one of the Hymenoptera, and on the left hand there is a

perfect female insect, very much magnified, with ovo-viviparous larvæ

within its abdomen, and between the two figures there is a

representation of a larva of the natural size. It is evident, however,

that ova may be expelled from the mother before they are hatched.

[Illustration: Fig. 544.--Female and Larva of Stylops.]

Packard describes the curious history of the female Stylops, which he

found parasitic on one of the bees. He caught the bee, and on

examining it he noticed a pale reddish-brown triangular mark on the

abdomen, and this was the flattened head and thorax of a female

Stylops. The creature is included in the body of the bee, and is

nourished by its juices. The head and thorax of the parasite were

noticed to be soldered into a single flattened mass, the baggy hind

body being greatly enlarged, like that of the female white ant. On

carefully drawing out the whole body from the bee the mass was found

to be very extensible, soft, and baggy, and on examining it under a

high power of the microscope, multitudes of very minute larvæ were

observed, and they began to issue out from the body of the parent all

alive, and not as eggs. The male of this _Stylops childreni_ is

totally unlike its partner, having large hind wings, and being able to

fly, as has already been noticed. It appears, then, that the larvæ are

hatched or crawl out of the body of the mother on to the body of the

bee, and are then transported to its nest; then they enter the body of

the bee larva, and live upon its fatty matter. The male Stylops is

turned into a pupa within the bee, and so is the female; but after the

second metamorphosis the male flies off, leaving his wingless partner

imprisoned for life, and she usually dies immediately after giving

birth to her myriad offspring (Packard). The female respires by

peculiarly arranged tracheæ, and absorbs nourishment through her skin

as well as by means of an alimentary canal, which ends in a blind sac.

All the beauties of the female, so far as they are visible to the

male, consist in the tiny patch which appears just without the body of

the unfortunate bee, and the ova collect in a space which opens

between the united head and body and the abdomen.

The genus _Mylabris_ corresponds most in structure, in appearance, and

in properties, to _Cantharis_, whose place they take in the East, in

China, and in the south of Europe. They are found in clusters on the

flowers of chicory, thistles, &c. The _Mylabris chicorii_, common

enough in France, especially in the south, is of small size, whilst

the other species are rather large. It is black, hairy, with a large

yellowish spot at the base of each elytron, and two transverse bands

of the same colour.

Another genus of this family is _Meloë_, with very short elytra, and

without wings. They walk slowly and with difficulty on low plants, the

female dragging along an enormous abdomen filled with eggs. They are

generally observed in spring. In Germany they give them the name of

_Maiwurm_ (Mayworm). Their succulence would expose them, without

doubt, to the voracity of birds and of insect-eating Mammifers if they

had not the power of exuding at will, in the moment of danger, from

all their articulations, an unctuous humour of a reddish-yellow

colour, the odour and probably also the caustic properties of which

repel the aggressor. The females lay their eggs underground, and out

of these come forth larvæ of a strange shape. Swallowed by cattle,

they cause them to swell and die. It is for this reason that Latreille

has given it as his opinion that these insects are the _Buprestis_ of

the ancients, of which the law of Cornelius speaks, "Lex Cornelia de

sicariis et veneficis." But the name of _Buprestis_ was applied by

Linnæus to a genus of which we shall treat farther on, and it has been

generally adopted by naturalists.

[Illustration: Fig. 545.--Sitaris humeralis.]

[Illustration: Fig. 546.--First larva of Sitaris humeralis (magnified).]

The commonest among the _Meloës_ is the _Meloë proscarabæus_, which is

to be found in abundance, in the month of April, in the meadows near

the bridge of Ivry in the environs of Paris. The metamorphoses of the

insects of this family had remained for a long time surrounded with

an impenetrable veil of mystery, but the researches of Newport in

England, and of M. Fabre (of Avignon) in France, has made known in our

days, phases, extremely curious, under which are accomplished the

metamorphoses of the _Meloë cicatricosus_, and of the _Sitaris

humeralis_, a species which belongs to the same family.[126] These

observations, of which we are about to give a rapid summary, will

probably help towards unravelling the first states of _Cantharis_.

[126] "Annales des Sciences Naturelles," 1857, 4e série, tome

vii., p. 300.

[Illustration: Fig. 547.--Pseudo-nymph of Sitaris humeralis.]

[Illustration: Fig. 548.--Third larva of Sitaris humeralis.]

[Illustration: Fig. 549.--Pupa of Sitaris humeralis.]

The _Sitaris humeralis_ (Fig. 545) takes no nourishment when arrived

at the perfect state. When the female has been impregnated, she lays

at the entrance of the nest of a solitary bee from 2,000 to 3,000

small whitish eggs, stuck together in shapeless masses. A month

afterwards there come out of these eggs very small larvæ, of a shiny

dark green, hard-skinned, armed with strong jaws, and long legs and

antennæ (Fig. 546). These are the first larvæ. They remain motionless,

and without taking food, till the following spring. At this period are

hatched the male bees, which precede the appearance of the females by

a month. As the bees come out of their nests, these larvæ hook

themselves on to their hairs, and pass them to the females, at the

coupling period. When the male bees have built the cells, and

furnished them with honey, the female, as we know, deposits in each an

egg. Immediately the larvæ of the _Sitaris_ let themselves fall on

these eggs, open them, and suck their contents. Then they change their

skin, and the second larva appears. This one gets into the honey, on

which it feeds for six weeks. It is blind, whereas the first larva was

provided with four eyes, no doubt to enable it to see the bees which

were to serve as its conductors, in like manner as the companions of

Ulysses watched the sheep of Polyphemus, so as to escape out of the

cave in which they were retained as prisoners. A few days later, and

this second larva contracts, and detaches from its body a transparent

skin, which discloses a mass, at first soft, which very soon hardens,

and becomes of a bright tawny colour; it is called the _pseudo-nymph_

(Fig. 547). It goes through the winter in this state. In the spring

comes forth a third larva (Fig. 548), resembling the second. This one

does not eat, and moults after a time. It very soon changes into an

ordinary pupa (Fig. 549), of a yellowish-white, from which comes forth

the adult _Sitaris_, which lives only a few days, to ensure the

propagation of its species, as is observed in the case of the

_Ephemeræ_. The larvæ of the _Sitaris_ had for a long time been

remarked clinging on to the hairs of the _Anthophoras_, but they were

always taken for _Acari_, and they had been described as such.

[Illustration: Fig. 550.--Lampyris noctiluca (male and female).]

The _Lampyridæ_ have the elytra weak and soft, like the insects of the

preceding tribe. In their perfect state they frequent flowers. The

larvæ are carnivorous, attacking other insects or worms. It is to this

group that the _Lampyris noctiluca_, or glow-worm, which one sees

shining during summer nights on grass and bushes, belongs. It has the

power of making this natural torch shine or disappear at will.

The luminous properties with which these insects are endowed have for

their object to reveal their presence to the opposite sex, for the

females alone possess these properties. In the same way as sounds or

odours exhaling from some insects attract the one towards the other

sex, so with the _Lampyris_ a phosphorescent light shows the females

to the males. The seat of the phosphorescent substance varies

according to the species. It exists generally under the three last

rings of the abdomen, and the light is produced by the slow combustion

of a peculiar secretion. It has been stated that it is evolved quickly

when the animal contracts its muscles, either spontaneously or under

the influence of artificial excitement. Some chemical experiments have

been made to ascertain the nature or the composition of the humour

which produces this strange effect; but up to this moment, they have

only enabled us to discover that the luminous action is more powerful

in oxygen, and ceases in gases incapable of supporting combustion. In

the most common species, the _Lampyris noctiluca_, or glow-worm, the

phosphorescence is of a greenish tint: it assumes at certain moments

the brightness of white-hot coal.

The females have no wings, while the males have them, and possess very

well-developed elytra. The females resemble the larvæ much, only they

have the head more conspicuous, and the thorax buckler-shaped, like

the male. The larvæ feed on small molluscs, hiding in the snails'

shells, after having devoured the inhabitant. They also possess the

phosphorescent property in a less degree than the adult females. The

female pupa resembles the larva; the pupa of the male, on the

contrary, has the wings folded back under a thin skin. The perfect

insect appears towards the autumn.

The Glow-worm (_Lampyris noctiluca_, Fig. 550) is of a brownish

yellow. It is common in England. In a kindred species, the _Luciola

Italica_, the two sexes are winged, of a tawny-brown, and equally

phosphorescent. They are met with in great numbers in Italy, and the

lawns are covered with them. Other insects of this family are without

the faculty of emitting light; as, for example, the genus _Lycus_, of

brilliant colours, which are met with in Africa and India. One of the

finest is the _Lycus latissimus_.

_Drilus_ is another genus, comprising insects of very singular habits.

The type is the _Drilus flavescens_. The male--a quarter of an inch

long, black and hairy, with elytra of a testaceous yellow, and with

pectinated antennæ--for a long time was alone known. The female--from

ten to fifteen times as large, without wings and elytra, of a

yellowish brown--was not discovered till much later, having apparently

nothing in common with the male in shape or colour. The metamorphoses

of these curious insects are now perfectly understood. Mielzinsky, a

Polish naturalist established at Geneva, found the _Drilus_ in the

larva state in the shell of the _Helix nemoralis_. These larvæ devour

the snail whose dwelling they occupy, as do the larvæ of the

_Lampyris_. Mielzinsky saw them emerge, but obtained only females,

which differed scarcely at all from the larvæ from which they

proceeded. He made a separate genus of them, under the denomination of

_Cochleoctonus_, and called the species _Vorax_. Later, Desmarest

resumed these observations. He provided himself, at the Veterinary

College of Alfort, with a number of shells of the _Helix_ filled with

the same larvæ. He saw come out of them, not only _Cochleoctoni_, but

also _Drili_, and he watched their coupling. It was then proved, by

this unanswerable argument, that these two insects, so unlike each

other, belong to the same species.

[Illustration: Fig. 551.--Jumping organ of the Elater.]

[Illustration: Fig. 552.--Jumping organ of the Elater, seen sideways.]

[Illustration: Fig. 553.--Larva of the Elater.]

The larva of the _Drilus flavescens_ fixes itself upon the shell of

the snail by a sort of sucker, like a leech. Little by little it slips

in between the mollusc and its house, and devours it entirely. To

change into a pupa, it shuts up the entrance to the shell with its old

skin; and when arrived at the perfect state, quits the shell which

served it as a temporary dwelling. The females of the _Drilus

flavescens_ take refuge under stones and dry leaves, or crawl slowly

along the ground; whilst the males, which fly with great ease, are on

the plants and brushwood. These insects are not rare in the environs

of Paris. M. H. Lucas has observed, in Algeria, near to Oran, another

curious species, the _Drilus Mauritanicus_. The larva of this insect

lives at the expense of the animal of the _Cyclostoma Volzianum_,

which closes the entrance to its shell with a covering of some

calcareous substance. It fixes itself on the edge of the shell, with

the aid of its sucker, and directs its strong mandibles to the side on

which the snail is obliged to raise the covering, either to breathe

the air or to walk. In this position it has the patience to wait for

many days at the door. The snail puts off for as long a time as he is

able the fatal moment. But when, overcome by hunger or nearly stifled

in his prison, he decides at last to open the door, the _Drilus_

profits immediately by this opportunity, and cuts the muscle which

keeps back the foot of the snail. The breach being made, nothing more

opposes itself to the entrance of the enemy. He slips in, and sets

to work to eat at his leisure the unfortunate inoffensive mollusc,

which affords him board and lodging. The _Ptilodadylides_, the

_Eucinetides_, and the _Cebrionides_ belong to the same family. The

first is exotic.

The _Elateridæ_ are rather large insects, often of hard texture,

having the prosternum prolonged into a point (Figs. 551 and 552), and

the antennæ indented saw-wise. They have the power of jumping when

placed on their backs, and of alighting again on their legs. Hence

their name of _Elater_ (derived from the same root as the word

_elastic_). They produce, in leaping, one sharp rap, and often knock

many raps when they are prevented from projecting themselves. This is

the mechanism which permits the skip-jack to execute these movements.

It bends itself upwards by resting on the ground by its head and the

extremity of the abdomen, and then it unbends itself suddenly, like a

spring. The point at the end of the thorax penetrates into a hollow of

the next ring; the back then strikes with force against the plane on

which it rests, and the animal is projected into the air. It repeats

this manoeuvre till it finds itself on its belly, for its legs are

too short to allow of its turning over. Its structure supplies it with

the means and the strength of rebounding as many times as it falls on

its back, and it can thus raise itself more than twelve times the

length of its body.

The larvæ of the genus _Elateridæ_ (Fig. 553) are cylindrical, with a

scaly skin and very short legs. They live in rotten wood or in the

roots of plants. According to M. Goureau, they pass five years in this

state.

The larvæ of the genus _Agriotes_ occasion considerable damage to

wheat-fields. They have much resemblance to the meal-worm, or larva of

the _Tenebrio_. The _Tetralobides_ are the largest of the _Elateridæ_,

attaining to a length of two inches; and are inhabitants of Africa and

Australia.

In America are found phosphorescent _Elateridæ_. These are the

_Pyrophori_, which the Spaniards of South America call by the name of

_Cucuyos_. They have, at the base of their thorax, two small, smooth,

and brilliant spots, which sparkle during the night; the rings of the

abdomen also emit a light. They give light sufficient to enable one

to read at a little distance from them. The _Pyrophorus noctilucus_

(Fig. 554) is very common in Havannah, in Brazil, in Guyana, in

Mexico, &c., and may be seen at night in great numbers, amongst the

foliage of trees. At the time of the Spanish conquest, a battalion,

just disembarked, did not dare to engage with the natives, because it

took the Cucuyos which were shining on the neighbouring trees for the

matches of the arquebuses ready to fire. "In these countries," says M.

Michelet, "one travels much by night, to escape the heat. But one

would not dare to plunge into the peopled shades of the deep forests

if these insects did not reassure the traveller. He sees them shining

afar off, dancing, twisting about; he sees them near at hand on the

bushes by his side; he takes them with him; he fixes them on his

boots, so that they may show him his road and put to flight the

serpents; but when the sun rises, gratefully and carefully he places

them on a shrub, and restores them to their amorous occupations. It is

a beautiful Indian proverb that says, 'Carry away the fire-fly, but

restore it from whence thou tookest it'"[127] The Creole women make

use of the Cucuyos to increase the splendour of their toilettes.

Strange jewels! which must be fed, which must be bathed twice a day,

and must be incessantly taken care of, to prevent them from dying. The

Indians catch these insects by balancing hot coals in the air, at the

end of a stick, to attract them, which proves that the light which

these insects diffuse is to attract. Once in the hands of the women,

the Cucuyos are shut up in little cages of very fine wire, and fed on

fragments of sugar-cane. When the Mexican ladies wish to adorn

themselves with these living diamonds, they place them in little bags

of light tulle, which they arrange with taste on their skirts. There

is another way of mounting the Cucuyos. They pass a pin, without

hurting them, under the thorax, and stick this pin in their hair. The

refinement of elegance consists in combining with the Cucuyos,

humming-birds and real diamonds, which produce a dazzling head-dress.

Sometimes, imprisoning these animated flames in gauze, the graceful

Mexican women twist them into ardent necklaces, or else roll them

round their waists, like a fiery girdle. They go to the ball under a

diadem of living topazes, of animated emeralds, and this diadem blazes

or pales according as the insect is fresh or fatigued. When they

return home, after the _soirée_, they make them take a bath, which

refreshes them, and put them back again into the cage, which sheds

during the whole night a soft light in the chamber. In 1766, a Cucuyo,

brought alive from America to Paris, probably in some old piece of

wood which happened to be on the vessel, caused great terror to the

inhabitants of the Faubourg St. Antoine, when they saw it flying in

the evening, glittering in the air. In 1864 a number of Cucuyos were

brought from Mexico to Paris by M. Laurent, captain of the frigate _La

Floride_. An experiment, made in the laboratory of the École Normal,

showed that the spectrum of their light is continuous, without any

black rays; it differs, besides, from the spectrum of the solar light

by a greater intensity of the yellow colour. The light is produced

probably as it is in the case of the _Lampyris_, by the slow

combustion of a substance secreted by the animal. The Cucuyo can,

nevertheless, at will, increase or diminish the splendour of this

light by means of membranes which it superposes, like screens, in

front of the phosphorescent bumps which it has on its thorax.

[127] "L'Insecte."

[Illustration: Fig. 554.--The Cucuyo (_Pyrophorus noctilucus_).]

[Illustration: Fig. 555.--Buprestis (Cyria) imperialis.]

In the Indies, and in China, the women use for dressing their hair

with, or as ear-rings, another Coleopteron of the same tribe, which

begins even to be employed for this purpose by the women of the south

of France. It is a _Buprestis_, of splendid colours, and of metallic

brightness. Linnæus, as we said above, gave to it, wrongly, the name

of _Buprestis_, which among the ancients served to designate a very

different insect, the _Meloë_, of the family of the _Cantharidæ_; but

modern naturalists have allowed this illegitimate title.

The _Buprestidæ_ walk heavily, but fly with the greatest ease during

the heat of the sun, and settle on the trunks of trees exposed to its

rays. In Europe, and especially in the North, they are very rare, and

of very small size. They must be looked for on birch-trees, whose

white colour seems to attract them. In the hottest parts of the world

they are very abundant, of large dimensions, and adorned with

sparkling colours. They do not jump, and are not endowed with the

phosphorescent property. Their larvæ have no legs, are elongate,

whitish, of a fleshy consistency, with the first ring of their bodies

very much broadened. They live in the trunks of trees, between the

bark and the wood, hollowing out for themselves irregular galleries,

and remaining sometimes in this state for ten years before

metamorphosing. Laporte de Castelnau and Gory have described and made

drawings of about 1,300 species of _Buprestidæ_. Fig. 555 represents

the _Buprestis imperialis_. The _Buprestis albosparsa_, the genera

_Julodis_, the _Chrysochroas_, and the _Trachys_ belong also to the

great family of _Buprestidæ_. The _Cleridæ_ are connected with the

preceding. They have the thorax narrower than the elytra, and rather

long; their integuments are less solid than those of the _Elateridæ_

and the _Buprestidæ_. The latter are phytophagous, the former

carnivorous. The principal type of this family is the _Clerus

formicarius_, russety, with the head and legs black, whose larva lives

at the expense of the larvæ of the weevil. Another genus, the

_Necrobia_, which lives on dried animal matter, has become celebrated,

as it was the cause of the salvation of the greatest entomologist of

France. The name of _Necrobia_ (from [Greek: nekros] and [Greek:

biôs]) does not mean "which lives on dead bodies," but it means "life

in death." Here is the story of which this name is destined to

preserve the remembrance, and which Latreille himself has related in

his "Histoire des Insectes." Before 1792, Latreille was known only

from some memoirs which he had published on insects. He was then

priest at Brives-la-Gaillarde, and was arrested with the curés of

Limousin, who had not taken the oath. These unfortunates were then

taken to Bordeaux in carts, to be transported to Guyana. Arrived at

Bordeaux in the month of June, they were incarcerated in the prison of

the Grand Séminaire till a ship should be ready to take them on board.

In the meanwhile, the 9th Thermidor arrived, and caused the execution

of the sentence which condemned the priests who had not taken the oath

to transportation to be for a while suspended. However, the prisons

emptied themselves but slowly, and those who had been condemned had

none the less to go into exile, only their transportation had been put

off till the spring.

"Latreille remained detained at the prison of the Grand Séminaire. In

the same chamber which he occupied there was at the time an old sick

bishop, whose wounds a surgeon came each morning to dress. One day as

the surgeon was dressing the bishop's wounds, an insect came out of a

crack in the boards. Latreille seized it immediately, examined it,

stuck it on a cork with a pin, and seemed enchanted at what he had

found.

"Is it a rare insect, then?" said the surgeon.

"Yes," replied the ecclesiastic.

"In that case you should give it to me."

"Why?"

"Because I have a friend who has a fine collection of insects, who

would be pleased with it."

"Very well, take him this insect; tell him how you came by it, and beg

him to tell me its name."

The surgeon went quickly to his friend's house. This friend was Bory

de Saint Vincent, a naturalist who became celebrated afterwards, but

who was very young at that time. He already occupied himself much with

the natural sciences, and in particular with the classing of insects.

The surgeon delivered to him the one found by the priest, but in spite

of all his researches, he was unable to class it.

Next day the surgeon having seen Latreille again in his prison, was

obliged to confess to him that in his friend's opinion this

Coleopteron had never been described. Latreille knew by this answer

that Bory de Saint Vincent was an adept. As they gave the prisoner

neither pen nor paper, he said to his messenger, "I see plainly that

M. Bory de Saint Vincent must know my name. You tell him that I am the

Abbé Latreille, and that I am going to die at Guyana, before having

published my 'Examen des Genres de Fabricius.'"

Bory, on receiving this piece of news, took active steps, and obtained

leave for Latreille to come out of his prison, as a convalescent, his

uncle Dayclas and his father being bail for him, and pledging

themselves formally to deliver up the prisoner the moment they were

summoned to do so by the authorities. The vessel which was to have

conducted Latreille to exile, or rather to death, was getting ready

whilst these steps were being taken, and while Bory and Dayclas were

obtaining leave for him to come out of prison. This was quite

providential, for it foundered in sight of Cordova, and the sailors

alone were able to save themselves. A little time afterwards his

friends managed to have his name scratched out from the list of

exiles. It is thus that the _Necrobia ruficollis_ was the saving of

Latreille.

The tribe of weevils is even much more numerous than that of the

_Elateridæ_ and the _Buprestidæ_. One may know them by their head

prolonged into a snout or trunk, by their rudimentary mouth, and by

their elbowed antennæ. About twenty thousand species are said to

exist. They feed on vegetables. Their larvæ are soft, whitish worms,

without legs, with very small heads, and live in the interior of the

stalks or seeds of plants, often occasioning enormous damage. They are

one of the plagues of agriculture. Each of our dry vegetables, each

variety of our cereals, has in this immense family its particular

enemy.

First are the _Bruchi_. The Pea Weevil (_Bruchus pisi_, Fig. 556),

which is brown with white spots, comes out of the pea at the end of

the summer. The female lays her eggs on peas which are ripe, and still

standing, in which the larva scoops out a habitation, and then makes

its exit by a circular hole (Fig. 557). It remains at rest all the

winter, and is not hatched till towards the following spring. The Bean

Weevil (_Bruchus rufimanus_) marks each bean with many black spots.

The vetch has also its special _Bruchus_. The Wheat Weevil (_Calandra

granaria_), of a darkish brown, lays its eggs on the grains, of which

the larvæ then eat the interior. A host of ways of getting rid of the

weevil have been proposed. The best means is to store corn properly,

and to keep the heap well aired. Let us mention further, the Clover

Weevil, belonging to the genus _Apion_, the Weevil of the Rape

(_Ceutorhynchus brassicæ_), the Turnip Weevil, &c., &c.

Fig. 556.--Pea Weevil (_Bruchus pisi_), magnified.

Fig. 557.--Pea pierced by the larva.

All vegetables, the vine, fruit trees, the ash, pines, &c., are eaten

by some weevil or other. As an example we give a figure of the spotted

_Pissodes pini_, which, as the figure shows, takes the precaution of

cutting half through the young stems and the stalks of the buds of the

pine, "so as," says M. Maurice Girard,[128] "that the sap flows only

with difficulty into the withered organ, and cannot suffocate the

young larvæ."

[128] "Metamorphoses des Insectes," p. 116.

[Illustration: Fig. 558.--Pissodes pini.]

[Illustration: Fig. 559.--Hylesinus piniperda.]

[Illustration: Fig. 560.--Larva of Scolytus.]

_Scolytus_, _Hylesinus_, and _Bostrichus_, which are connected with

the weevils, hollow out galleries between the wood and the bark of

different trees, when in the larva state, and devour the leaves in the

adult state. Fig. 559 represents the _Hylesinus piniperda_. The

_Scolyti_ are sometimes so numerous in the forests, that the trees are

tattooed all over by the larvæ. In 1837, they were obliged to cut

down, in the Bois de Vincennes, 20,000 feet of oak trees, aged from

thirty to forty years, completely ruined by the ravages of the

_Scolytus_, whose larva is here represented (Fig. 560). The genus

_Tomicus_, hairy, and of a tawny colour, are a terrible plague to pine

forests. In 1783, in the Forest of Hartz, 1,500,000 of trees were

destroyed by these insects. Often have the priests implored, in the

churches, the Divine clemency, to put an end to the devastations made

by them.

We arrive at the tribe of the _Longicornes_, which contains beautiful

insects, of elegant shape and varied colours, sometimes also of rather

large dimensions.

[Illustration: Fig. 561.--Imago and pupa of Cerambyx heros.]

The genus _Cerambyx_ has the antennæ very long; they exceed in some of

the species two or three times the length of the body. The larvæ are

large whitish worms, which live in the wood of trees, the adult

insects frequenting flowers, rotten trees, &c. In the month of June,

on the Continent, one meets on the oaks with the Great Capricorne

(_Cerambyx heros_, Fig. 561), of a dark brown, whose larva (Fig. 562)

scoops out its galleries in the interior of the tree, and often

occasions much damage.

[Illustration: Fig. 562.--Larva of Cerambyx heros.]

[Illustration: Fig. 563.--Larva of Lina populi.]

[Illustration: Fig. 564.--Larva and imago of Crioceris merdigera.]

[Illustration: Fig. 565.--Lady-bird (_Coccinella septempunctata_).]

[Illustration: Fig. 566.--Larva of the Lady-bird.]

The _Chrysomelidæ_ are other phytophagous insects, dressed in the

brightest colours, having short and thick-set bodies. The larvæ, soft

and ovoid, devour the leaves of trees. One of the best known species

is _Lina populi_, of a bronzed colour, with red elytra, whose larva

(Fig. 563), of a greenish grey, devours the leaves of the poplar-tree.

The _Galerucæ_ and the _Alticæ_ belong to the same family, as also do

the _Cassidæ_, the _Crioceres_, and the _Donaciæ_. The _Cassida

viridis_ frequents nettles and artichokes; the elytra are of rounded

form. Fig. 564 represents the _Crioceris merdigera_, a great rarity

in this country. The _Crioceris asparagi_, or Asparagus Beetle,

tawny, and barred with black, resembles it in habit.

The last tribe of Coleoptera comprises the _Coccinellidæ_, or

Lady-birds (Fig. 565). These little globular, smooth insects, red or

yellow, with black spots, are very useful to us, for they clear the

trees of the aphides and other mischievous insects. Their larvæ (Fig.

566) make use of their front legs to carry their prey to their mouths.

When danger threatens a _Coccinella_, it hides its feet under its

body, and remains sticking to the stem of the bush. If you touch it,

it allows itself to fall to the ground, but sometimes opens its

elytra, and flies off rapidly. It also exudes from the articulations

of its abdomen a yellow mucilaginous liquid, of a pungent and

disagreeable odour. This is the only means of defence possessed by

this little inoffensive being, which deserves in all respects the name

of "Bête à bon Dieu," which the French children give it.