a broad, general description of this order, that it contained all insects whose wings are guarded by a pair of hard, horny sheaths, (elytra,) united down the back with a straight suture. But there are various exceptions to this rule; several families do not possess wings, though they have wing-cases; others have the elytra soldered together; and in a few instances one sex is winged, and the other is not, by these variations linking into other orders.

How vain it would be to attempt any full description of English beetles alone, is shown by the fact that there are more than 3600 already known. Great Britain appears to be a peculiarly favourable locality for beetles, yet, reasoning by analogy, we should have expected them to have abounded more in France, Italy, or Spain, for towards the tropics the numbers increase enormously, as if hot countries were their proper habitat. The extraordinary variety of shape is the first thing that strikes anyone on examining a collection of beetles, especially among the foreign species-horned, and hump-backed, and long legged, and long nosed, and caricaturing now the branches of a stag, now the shape of a kangaroo, as if in this one order Nature had indulged to the utmost in that ludicrous element with which she sometimes startles us; and the most fanciful and practical naturalist alike is unable to conceive any use for these diversities of form— any reason why the Atlas Beetle should go about the world armed with three formidable horns-why the head of a foreign weevil should be so prolonged as to remind as irresistibly of a parasol-or the Harlequin (a peculiarly Aluggish animal, by-the-bye, with the dress only of his namesake) should have legs of exceeding and disproportionate length. It is a puzzling subject, nor will it avail to say that if we knew more we should find that each wondrous shape was planned for good reasons, for there much in Nature that is of no exact use-much VOL. 13. PART 76.

is

very

27

that, as far as we can see, varies only for the sake of variety.

The colouring of beetles is as singular and diversified as their shape, and Kirby and Spence's description of insects painted to imitate the clouds of heaven, the veining of marbles, the blazonry of heraldry, the signs of mathematics, though extended to the whole insect world, might more especially be used as applying to the Coleoptera. Even our own black beetle, the one so commonly seen creeping slowly and painfully about, and looked on with anything but an eye of favour, deserves a close examination, for no shot-silk of art, or peacock's neck in nature, can be more lovely than the changing lights of steel, violet, and green, with which the under part of his mail is adorned. If ever out-of-door lectures on entomology are established, (and very delightful things they would be,) the first thing taught should be a proper appreciation of a black beetle.

Certain colours seem to run in certain families. The Cetonias, of which we have a familiar example in the south of England and South Wales, in the beautiful Rose Chafer, are generally green, shot with amethyst and ruby; the Coccinellidæ, or Lady-birds, are spotted with black on a plain ground of red or yellow; the Ground Weevils are dark and sombre; those inhabiting trees are generally bright-green, while such beetles as love decaying matter are dark-brown, or black, with a shining polish on their mail, which is always clean, in spite of their unattractive habits and habitat.

The distribution of insects in different countries is well worth considerable study, though it is a branch of entomology hitherto much neglected. Why will not Mr. Reeves publish a volume on the Geography of Insects as well as on that of Plants? Surely much must have been discovered since Latreille wrote his famous treatise on this subject.

Many insects feed exclusively on particular plants, so that the entomology and botany of any region must necessarily coincide more or less. Of course where vegetation ends, insect life ends also; but insects are found in regions where the intense cold makes their presence seem very extraordinary, till we recollect that such as inhabit them pass their preparatory stages deep in the ground, and are aroused into life by the brief hot summer which

calls forth northern vegetation antly. As an instance that insects can endure severe so suddenly and luxuricold while preparing for their perfect state, we may mention that after the long frosts in the spring of 1855, instead of a bad season for the entomologist, there came an unusually favourable one, and rare insects abounded. Insects certainly diminish in numbers as we approach the poles, but rather from the want of counterbalancing heat in summer, than from the frigid climate in winter. Fabricius collected sixty-three species in Greenland. There is a great variety in Iceland, but if we go a few steps further, and reach the latitude of Melville Island, insects no longer appear to exist.

Each part of the world, and each country, has some insects peculiar to itself. All the insects brought from the eastern parts of Asia and China, whatever be their latitude and temperature, are distinct from those of Europe and Africa. The insects of the United States, though often approaching very closely to our own, are, with but

In South

few exceptions, specifically distinguishable. America, the equinoctial lands of New Granada and Peru on the one side, and of Guiana on the other, contain, for the most part, distinct groups, the Andes forming the division, and interposing a narrow boundary of extreme cold between climates otherwise very similar.* Again, those splendid large blue butterflies (Morpho) which all travellers in South America mention, are found Géographie Générale des Insectes, &c.

exclusively in that country, where they haunt the open glades of the forest, flying along with a slow undulating motion, and perpetually returning to the sunshine if driven or frightened away for a moment to the deeper recesses of the woods. Britain is the head-quarters of several sorts of beetles. Sweden has many insects peculiar to itself. While, again, some countries, though far apart, possess nearly the same species; Greenland and Great Britain, for instance. Some insects take a worldwide range, such as the painted Lady Butterfly, which is not uncommon in England, is,found at the Cape of Good Hope, in New Holland, in Japan, and in company with another species almost exactly like it, in North America. Several of our English water beetles disport themselves in the pools and lakes of Greenland, in the tanks of India, and in every pond and ditch throughout the whole South of Europe. The Orange-Tip Butterfly has been taken at the Mer de Glace; the Swallow Tail of Cambridgeshire fens was found by Dr. Hooker in great numbers by the banks of a stream in India, opening and shutting its handsome wings, and basking in the hot sunshine; and Captain Fremont found a Humble-Bee in the Rocky Mountains, 13,570 feet above the level of the Gulf of Mexico, the first, perhaps,' as he says, 'of his species to cross the mountain barrier—a solitary pioneer to foretell the advance of civilization.'

Not only peculiar species, but peculiar types seem to distinguish certain countries; and there are groups, as Kirby says, representing each other in distant regions whether in their form, their functions, or in both. The honey and wax of Europe, Asia, and Africa, are made by bees of the same genus as our own hive-bee, (Apis Mellifica,) but in America, Euglossa, Melipona, and Trigona, take its place. Why certain species are confined to certain countries seems inexplicable; the Ant Lion, (Myrmeleon,) common enough in France, has never

yet migrated across the Channel, yet it is found in Russia. Lapland, again, has several insects which are not found in Sweden, Norway, or Russia.

Humboldt, in his personal narrative, declares that the distribution of species, whether among insects or plants, is a mystery not to be solved by man. How insects, birds, and animals, reached unpeopled islands far away. from the mainland, and encircled by the waves, we cannot say. It is not among the things written for our learning, and speculation fails to explain it, as it does when it would tell us why this insect is never found far from the region of perpetual snow, and that one can only exist in the burning deserts of Africa; but we find some clue when we know that the office of several families of beetles is to remove decaying and offensive matter, and, accordingly, they abound in cool climates, where it would but slowly dry up, and are scarce or unknown in countries where, from the heat, a dead body at once becomes dry. Again, in countries where there are large and numerous animals whose decaying bodies would taint the air in proportion to their size, the small sorts of beetles that have the charge of removing such substances in Britain, are replaced by much larger kinds.

(To be continued.)

CONVERSATIONS UPON WORDS.
CHAPTER V.

Ox the morning appointed for the next lesson, the three children looked very cheerful, and told their mamma that they thought they had prepared something for her with regard to the synonymes she had given them. Edward was anxious to speak first, for while talking to the old gardener, he had learned the true meaning of two of the words. Edward was asking him one day how he had learned so much about plants, and the old man replied,