The Coleoptera are well represented in England as beetles. They have four wings, but the outer pair serve as coverings to the inner ones. They are termed Elytra, and are horny in texture. These beetles are short-lived, but useful as scavengers, and serve to manure the ground by burying objectionable matter. The larvæ of beetles eat tremendously. The stag-beetle is a formidable-looking animal, and the lady-bird is well known as an enemy to the aphides on our rose trees. The tiger-beetle, cockchafer, and various water-beetles belong to this family. The scarabee, or sacred Egyptian beetle, also will be found classed with the coleoptera. Many of these beetles are excellent scavengers, and some called burying beetles remove the soil underneath the carcases of birds and other small dead animals, letting them fall down below the ground level; the beetles then lay their eggs in the body, so that sustenance may be at hand for the young when hatched.
The Orthoptera include our cockroaches, miscalled “black beetles,” the locusts, crickets, etc. The ravages of the locust are well known. The larvæ of the orthoptera has no wings, but otherwise is very like the grown insect. They change their skins frequently before they become perfect insects.
Passing the “nerve-winged” dragon-flies and caddis, whose larvæ case is so familiar and useful as bait, we come to the very important and interesting order of Hymenoptera, with four membranous wings. In this rank we find bees, wasps, and ants, the first and last named being proverbial for industry and examples of almost superhuman reasoning powers, and a similitude to man’s arrangements in labour and house-building marvellous to contemplate. A study of the habits of ants, bees, and wasps will reveal a state of society existing amongst them which more nearly resembles man in feelings and habits, for these insects possess means of oral communication.
Fig. 852.—Honey-lapping apparatus of wild sea-bee (Halictus), (a, magnified; a b, more highly magnified).
All these insects are armed with a sting, or other offensive weapon. The ant possesses the “formic” acid, which derives its name from the possessor. The destructive white ants will eat away a wooden house very quickly, sapping and mining it in all directions till it is a mere skeleton. The habits of bees are so well known and have been so often described that we need not detail them. The manner in which the ants “milk” the aphides is curious and interesting.
Fig. 853.—Scales from moth’s wing (magnified).
The Strepsiptera order includes very few species, so we may pass quickly to the Lepidoptera, the butterflies and moths, whose beautiful colourings and markings have attracted us all from childhood. There are about 12,000 species of the lepidoptera, and they are divided into “moths” and “butterflies,” the former being seen in twilight, or darkness, the latter in sunlight. They can readily be distinguished by the antennæ, those of the butterfly being tipped, or knobbed. The silkworm belongs to this family. These insects undergo complete metamorphosis. The remaining two orders of insects include the house-flies and gnats; and the flea, and jigger, or chigo, which penetrates the skin and lays its eggs in the flesh, causing thereby dangerous inflammation.
Crustacea.