LESSON XXIV.
HOW TO LEARN ABOUT BEETLES.
No class of insects has been more studied and written about than beetles. Why is this? They are not as wise as the ants. They do not build homes and cities, as bees and wasps do. They make no honey and no wax. They have not the many trades of that busy Mrs. Wasp.
There are a few beetles which make little mud cells, or balls of dirt for their eggs, or weave little nests for the pupa. But their work is poor and rude and not as fine as Mrs. Wasp can do.
No doubt the reason why beetles have had so much notice is, that there are very many of them, of very many kinds. They live where we can often see them. We can easily take them to pieces, to study their parts, for their bodies are firm and strong.
The parts of their bodies are very curious. Beetles can be kept a long time after they are dead. They will not spoil as soon as soft-bodied insects.
After all, the chief reason of the notice taken of beetles is their great beauty. It is a beauty of color and shape. Often the cases are lined and dotted as if carved with great care.
Would you like to have some beetles to keep, to look at and show to your friends? Let me tell you how to get them.
Have a sheet of thick pasteboard, to fasten them on. When you walk out, carry with you a bottle with a wide mouth and a good cork. If this bottle has broken laurel leaves in it, the beetles will die as soon as you put them in.
Or, you can kill the beetles with a little ether. Or, you can take up the beetle with a little forked stick, and plunge it into very hot or boiling water.
“Oh,” you say, “that would be so cruel!” But the truth is, the beetle dies the instant he is plunged into hot water. He has no time to feel pain.
Why do these things kill beetles so quickly? Here, now, is a great fact that you must know. The insects do not breathe through the mouth or nose, as you do. They have no lungs. They breathe through pipes or tubes, wound over all the body. These tubes are very fine, and too small to be seen with the naked eye. They are held open by a little stiff, spiral thread, like this:
These tubes spread even to the legs and feet of the insect. They reach the open air by many openings, or breath holes. Now, when you plunge the beetle into hot water, ether, or laurel odor, all its tubes are filled, and it dies at once. When your beetle is dead, set it on the sheet of stiff paper.
Draw the legs, feelers, and jaws into place with a pin or toothpick. Then fasten the beetle to the paper with a tiny drop of thick glue put under the body. Or, you can put a fine needle or pin through the body. Be very sure that your beetle is quite dead before you put the pin into him.
If you take this way of saving beetles, you will soon have very many, of all colors, sizes, and shapes. They will be brown, black, red, green, golden. I can hardly tell you how pretty the beetles are!
Put some on the paper, with the wing-cases raised, and the flying-wings drawn out from beneath.The under wings are larger than the upper. You will wonder that the beetle can pack them in the cases.
The feelers of beetles take many forms. Some are like plumes, some are like scales or leaves, some like clubs. Some are nearly round like balls, some are cone-shaped, some plain and straight; some are bent like a new moon.
A farmer or gardener will like your beetles better dead than alive. As he will tell you, the beetles and their larvæ are very greedy things. They often eat leaves and spoil crops and trees.