In some seasons streets absolutely red with them, and belief. I have seen the while within doors a the houses covered with their multitudes, ran along the angle of the walls thick band of Lady-birds like a red cable, large bunches banging m e^h and veiling well illustrated the adage tha comer. These insects very place.’ Nothing could be ‘ dirt is only matter in the wrong in the locality, as it was more beneficial than their presence of hop gardens, and by their means situated in the very midst destruction. But, thoug the year’s harvest was saved from of doors, they were not at all they were very much wanted out as Lady-birds have a very wanted inside the house, especially multiplied by tens of thousand., odour, which, when unpleasant after the rooms had been almost unbearable. Even becomes and the more so tha they were almost uninhabitable, cleared, open, because the Ladyto keep the windows it was impossible swarms, and would birds flocLd into the room in had been ejected. Even throughout replaced those which their positions, having bee winter many of them retained by the warmth of the fire. kent alive itself to a twig or leaf the^larva is full-fed, it attaches

When hangs with its head dosvnwards.

by the eud of its toil, and thus

Presently, the larval skin splits down the back, but the pupa

does not emerge, remaining within the larval skin until it has

changed into its perfect form. It has been mentioned that I the Lady-birds give out a very unpleasant odour. This is caused

ky a yellowish liquid which issues from the joints of the limbs,

as has been described in connection with the Oil Beetle, on

page 1 54, and which has a very powerful and disagreeable scent. I In some parts of the country this liquid is considered to be a I g. toothache, the finger being first rubbed against the

legs of the Lady-bird, and then on the offending tooth. In its ; I larval state it emits a similar liquid from the tubercles upon

its body. ^ It is rather remarkable that the popular names of Lady-bird and Lady-cow are not peculiar to England. In France, for example, the insect is called Bete de la Vierge, or Vache a Lieu. The children, however, do not respect the insect in consequence of its popular names, but, on the contrary, when they catch one, look upon it as a means of showing their ingenuity ^ in prolonging torture without destroying life.

1 The next family, that of the Endomychidae, is represented

y one species, Lycoperdina bovistce, which is shown on Woodcut XXIV. Fig. 2. \ In this family the antennae are tolerably long, the thorax is impressed behind, and the last joint of the maxillary palpus is never hatchet-shaped. In the genus Lycoperdina the thorax is heart-shaped, and abruptly cut off at the base, and there is no distinct club to the antennae. The present species is an odd, black, flat insect, which has been very happily compared to a puff-ball (Lycoperdmi bovMtce), from which it derives its geoenc name, and makes its exit by the aperture which exists at the top of the fungus, and through which the spores escape like umber of puff-balls may be examined without a single sneci

insects, when one specimen is found, plenty more are

be seen, and though generally five hundred of the fungi may hive been cammed without success, the five

enough Beetles to stock a dozen hundred and firit marco" cabinets.

The wide and deeply fringed maxilla is worthy of notice. This is the only English species of the genus, the second supposed species being nothing more than a variety.

The family of the Trichopteridse contains a good many of which we select one as our example. This is T/'ispecies, cho'pteryx atomaria, which is represented on Woodcut XXIV. Fig. 3.

These are all little Beetles, and, indeed, are the tiniest of the British Coleoptera. Small as they are, they can he easily when examined by the aid of a lens, so bold are recognised which mark them. The antennae are long, the characteristics and beset with long hairs, and having a bold threeslender, club. The wings are very long and narrow, and fringed jointed which has gained for them the name with hairs, a peculiarity or ‘ hairy wings.’ Sometimes the wings are of Trichopteryx, but when they are present they are always fringed undeveloped, are other characteristics of the family, but with hair. There for the recognition of any insect that belongs these are sufficient to it. the antennae are about

In the typical genus, Trichopteryx, as the body, the head is convex, large and trianhalf as long are furnished at their tips with several gular, and the wings present species is one of the largest of bundles of hairs. The twenty-fourth of an inch in the family, and yet it is only one as it is, by the side of other species of the length. Small it is only a giant, most being the thirty-sixth part of same genus there are some which are barely onean inch in length, while Some notion of the size of these hundredth of an inch long. by looking at the little line on tiny creatures may be obtained 3, and reflecting that they measure just the right hand of Fig. one quarter of that length. has been chosen as our example ot

The little insect which as the tiny Beetles are called is tolethese ‘micro-coleoptera,’ can be found under heaps of decaying rably common, and Though the finder may not leafmiould and similar localities. species when he discovers it, be able to recognise the precise see that it is a Beetle, whereas, when he he can at all events which have just been

finds the exceedingly minute creatures for him to know, without the aid

mentioned, it is impossible

of a leus, tliat the little black speck is even an insect, much

less whether it be a Beetle or not. The best mode of capturing

these Beetles is to take some leaf-mould from under a heap,

scatter it thinly on a sheet of white paper, and then go ov'er i it carefully with a tolerably powerful lens. l Beetles, the

Owing to the very minute dimensions of these

exact definition of the species is a very difficult business, but it is estimated that twelve species are known in this country.

Passing by one family of this section, we come to the Pselaphidas, of which remarkable family two examples will be given, each illustrating one of the sub-families. 4

In these Beetles the elytra are very short, so short, indeed, that for many years these insects were classed among the Brachelytra. The club of the antennjB is bold and well-defined, the last joint being very large. The head is into a distinct neck. narrowed behind

The first sub-family is called the Pselaphime, and in them the antennae have eleven joints, and the eyes and parts of the mouth are well developed. The genus Pselaphus, of which there are only two British species, has the antenme, palpi and egs very long. The commonest species, Pselaphus HeiseL which IS represented on Woodcut XXIV. Fig. 4, is shining yellow-brown, has its body very flat and wide, and on each side 0 the suture of the elytra there is a stria which runs from the base to the tip. It can be shaken out of moss, as can its congener, PseZopAus Dresdenensis, which may be distinguished " ^ semicircular impression at the base of thelLrax B-’oUes is, perhaps, the strangest of all our uative ruseots, and how it can find any gratification m existence is not easy to see. We think that the life of a deaf and dumb man is a hard one, shut out a he s from free intercourse with his fellow creature; and incap^ of si Ofmprehending, the common blessings of sight and hearing. Yet he is capable of one kind tf animal enjoyment, for he can eat, and indeed upon this capa persis'l ' n instruction by which such afflicted P sons have been rescued from their wretched isolation, and

taught to interchange ideas with their fellow men. But, supposing that a man who was incapable of sight or hearing were also found without a mouth, and yet possessing the power of livino- without food, we should think that such a being must have*^ reached the very abyss of misery— a misery beyond all power of alleviation.

Yet in the Beetle which is shown on Woodcut XXIV. Fig. 5, we see an insect in which these imaginary privations are the state, and which possesses neither eyes nor mouth, and normal existence without food. We should, is capable of supporting wrong in supposing that this insect must be however, be veiy because a human being under such conditions would miserable and may be sure that, in some mystebe supremely wretched, this Beetle, which leads a darkling life and is incapable

rious way, is just as happy in its way as the brilliant butterfly of eating, sunshine, and flits from flower to flower, enthat basks in the joying their lovely colours and sweet juices. insect be possessed of some senses unknown to

Whether the be a problem not likely to be solved, but, us, must of necessity the only sense which it can possess is as far as we can judge, The name Pselaphidse refers to this supposition, that of touch. and is formed from a Grreek word, signifying the groping movements of one who tries to find his way in the dark. name of this Beetle is Claviger foveolatue, the former

The and given to the insect on name signifying ‘club-bearer,’ of the form of the antenna, which is boldly clubbed, account This Beetle can be found in the nests and has only five joints. jiava), a very common insect, which of the yellow ant {Formica large stones if it can find them, or, in makes its nests under up little mounds of earth. It default of such shelter, throws on heaths and hilly districts. The can be found plentifully like that of the ant with which colour of the insect is yellow, and it has no wings. The name foveolatus given it lives, fovea, or hollow, in the middle o to it on account of the deep the abdomen.

deemapteea.

Dbemaptera.

CHAPTER I.

These insects, popularly known as Earwigs, are remarkable for many reasons. None of them are large, and some are very small. There are but few species, and most of the British species are very common — in fact, much too common as far as flowergardens are concerned. Yet, though they are small, few, and common, they have been the occasion of more disputes among entomologists than all the other insects put together. Some asserted that they were an ‘ aberrant ’ branch of the Brachelytra and allied to the common Eove Beetles, while others as strenuously asserted that they belonged by right to the Orthoptera and were allied, though distantly, to the Cockroach. The use to which they put the forceps with which their tails are armed furnished another fertile source of dispute, while even their popular English name was cause for abundant quarrel one party considering the name to be properly Earm^, in allusion to the popular idea that they were in the habit of crawling into h^an ears ; and the other spelling the word Ear^omg, because the pread wing of the insect is succession, shaped like a human ear. and begin with the to occupy in the world first-namely, of insects. the position which they oimht

It is satisfactorily ascertained that they cannot be Beetles, if only for the one fact, that in the pupal state they are not inactive, but resemble in every respect the perfect insect, that the wings are except rudimentary. The elytra, instead of beinoorny, are soft and leathery, very small, without veins • and neaily, but not quite, cover the wings, the leathery hin’o-e of which projects just beyond them when folded. This hinge

Page 42 of 117