LESSON XXII.
IN ARMOR CLAD.
Go to the garden or to the house plants, and after a little search you will find one of the wonders of the world.
You will find a small, horny, shining, red thing with black spots on its back. “Why!” you say“that is only a lady-bug, or lady-bird. We say a little rhyme to it.”
The rhyme is—
“Lady-bird, lady-bird,Fly away home!Your house is on fireAnd your children will roam.”
“Lady-bird, lady-bird,Fly away home!Your house is on fireAnd your children will roam.”
“Lady-bird, lady-bird,Fly away home!Your house is on fireAnd your children will roam.”
“Lady-bird, lady-bird,
Fly away home!
Your house is on fire
And your children will roam.”
Yes, it is one of the beetles, and every beetle is a wonder. Come, study this wonder.
The winged insects are divided into two great classes, Eaters and Drinkers. That is what their Latin names mean. Butterflies, house-flies, bees, and others, are drinkers. That is, they get their food by sucking it through a pipe or tube.
This tube is on the fore part of the head; it is really the upper lip grown long and round.
The other great class, the Eaters, eat their food with their mouths. Some suck or lick it; some use their jaws to crush and break their food.
Beetles belong to the class Eaters.
The beetles are covered with a hard, horny shell, like a case. In this they are like the old-time soldiers, who wore armor from head to foot.
Beetles belong to the great family of the ring-made creatures. Take a large, round beetle, with big jaws, feelers, and legs. Does he not look much like Mr. Crab, who is also ring-made?
In the pictures in this lesson you see Mr. Crab and Mr. Beetle. This is a large beetle that likes to live among the grasses and weeds near the seashore. When he and Mr. Crab meet on the sand they may think they are cousins.
Mr. Beetle.
Mr. Beetle.
Now let us get a beetle and look at him closely. You will often find dead beetles on your path or in the grass. You can take them to pieces and compare them with what you read about them.
The first thing that you will notice in the beetleis the hard case over the wing. The wing-cases look like little shells, and have a nice hinge to hold them in their place.
These two wing-covers fit close to each other over the beetle’s back. When he flies he lifts them away from the wings. When you take off these covers you will see lying under the cases a pair of neatly folded wings. These wings are made much as Mrs. Wasp’s are.
Mr. Crab.
Mr. Crab.
The cases are used for armor, not for flying.They are really a pair of wings. The fine silken under-wings are the pair with which beetles fly.
There are some beetles that do not have this second pair, and so cannot fly. There are some that have the upper pair so short that they do not half cover the body. Beetles which do not have the lower wings creep from place to place.
Watch a beetle as he crawls on the ground. Now see him! When his back flies open two bright-hued shells rise up. This crawling thing sweeps into the air on a pair of wide thin wings!
The part of the beetle’s body that is under the wings has rings like those of the wasp. The body is made in the three parts insects have. The wings and six legs are fastened on what you would call the chest or middle part.
The wings fastened on the upper or back part of the beetle’s chest fold down over the hind part of the body. On the end of the hind part is what is called “the egg-placer.” With that Mrs. Beetle lays her eggs in safe places.
The legs and feet of the beetle are made in joints. They have hairs on them. The legs are so made and set that they cannot spread out as far as those of spiders, wasps, flies.
Now here is Mr. Beetle’s head. It has two jaws and two feelers, the mouth, and the eyes. There isa little horn shield over the mouth. In fact, the whole beetle is in a snug horn coat. We may call this coat a suit of armor.
The eyes of the beetle are like those of the fly. Very many eyes are set in what seem to be two big eyes. The beetle does not have three single eyes on the top of his head. Sometimes he has two small simple eyes at the back of his head.
The splendid colors of Mr. Beetle are on his horn coat. I caught a beetle last night which had the under part of his breast covered with close hairs, so that it looked like velvet. He seemed to have on a rich brown velvet vest.