"Bad" nuts are also due to one of these insects, the common Nut-weevil. which introduces its egg into the kernel during the earlier stages of its development. When the grub hatches, it proceeds to devour the kernel, leaving a quantity of bad-flavoured "frass" behind it, while the shell is left untouched until the perfect insect emerges. An allied species attacks acorns in a similar manner.
Photo by J. Edwards] [Colesborne.
JUMPING-BEETLE. ALLIED TO THE TURNIP-FLEA.
It is about one-tenth of an inch in length.
Among the finest and largest of all beetles are many of those belonging to the great Long-horn group, of which the common British Musk-beetle is a familiar example. This insect owes both its popular and scientific titles to its powerful odour, which perhaps resembles that of sweetbriar rather than musk, and can often be detected at a distance of twenty or thirty yards. The beetle, which is rich metallic green in colour, with long, slender antennæ, may be found in July sunning itself on the trunks or foliage of willow-trees. It varies considerably in size.
Still more plentiful is the Wasp-beetle, with its black wing-cases banded with bright yellow. While flying, it may easily be mistaken for the insect whose name it bears. The grub lives in old posts, rails, hop-poles, etc., feeding upon the solid wood.
The Timberman is remarkable for the extreme length of the antennæ, which, in the male insect, are three or four times as long as the body, and trail out far behind it during flight. It is found, not uncommonly, in fir woods in Scotland.
The beautiful Harlequin Beetle of tropical America is one of the largest members of the group, and is remarkable for the great length of the front legs as well as for the singular colouring of the wing-cases. It lives almost entirely in the trees, swinging itself from branch to branch somewhat after the manner of a spider-monkey. When it ventures into the air, it is greatly incommoded by the size of its limbs and the length of its antennæ, and seems to have but little power of directing its course.
