Vestiges of the natural history of creation / [Anon].

  • Robert Chambers
Date:
1844
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Vestiges of the natural history of creation / [Anon]. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    255/408 page 247
    neither of these celebrated men suspected the absolute fact, elicited from our analogies of this group, that this very tribe constituted the sub- typical group of one of the primary divisions of coleopterous insects: nor had they any suspicion that, by the filthy habits and repulsive forms of these beetles, nature had intended that they should be types or emblems of hundreds of other groups distinguished by peculiarities equally indicative of evil On the other hand, the thalerophagous petalocera, forming the typical group of the same division, present us with all the perfections and habits belonging to their kind. These families of beetles live only upon fresh vegetables; they are diurnal, and sport in the glare of day, pure in their food, elegant in their shapes, and beau- tiful in their colours.”* The third type, (first of the three aberrant, ) called by Mr. Swainson the natatorial, or aquatic, are chiefly remarkable for their bulk, the dispro- portionate size of the head, and the absence, or slight development of the feet. They partake of the predaceous and destructive character of the adjoining sub-typical group, and the means of their predacity are generally found in the mouth * Distribution and Classification of Animals, p. 248.
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