n the prothorax. It bores through
and enters the developing seed, where it undergoes a moult and becomes
legless. Similarly the newly-hatched larva of an oil-beetle (_Meloe_)
is an active little campodeiform insect, which, hatched from an egg
laid among plants, waits to attach itself to a passing bee. Carried to
the bee's nest, it undergoes a moult, and becomes a fat-bodied grub,
ready to lead a quiet life feeding on the bee's rich food-stores.

[Illustration: From Chittenden, _Yearbook_, 1894, U.S. Dept. of
Agriculture.

FIG. 3.--Grain Weevils. a, _Calandra granaria_; b, larva; c, pupa; d,
_C. oryzae_.]

_Distribution and Habits._--The Coleoptera are almost world-wide in
their distribution, being represented in the Arctic regions and on
almost all oceanic islands. Most of the dominant families--such as the
_Carabidae_ (ground-beetles), _Scarabaeidae_ (chafers), or
_Curculionidae_ (weevils) have a distribution as wide as the order. But
while some large families, such as the _Staphylinidae_ (rove-beetles)
are especially abundant on the great northern continents, becoming
scarcer in the tropics, others, the _Cicindelidae_ (tiger-beetles), for
example, are most strongly represented in the warmer regions of the
earth, and become scarce as the collector journeys far to south or
north. The distribution of many groups of beetles is restricted in
correspondence with their habits; the _Cerambycidae_ (longhorns), whose
larvae are wood-borers, are absent from timberless regions, and most
abundant in the great tropical forests. Some families are very
restricted in their range. The _Amphizoidae_, for example, a small
family of aquatic beetles, are known only from western North America and
Eastern Tibet, while an allied family, the _Pelobiidae_, inhabit the
British Isles, the Mediterranean region, Tibet and Australia. The
beetles of the British islands afford some very interesting examples of
restricted distribution among species. For example, large and
conspicuous European beetles, such as the stag-beetle (fig. 1, _Lucanus
cervus_) and the great water-beetle (_Hydrophilus piceus_, fig. 20), are
confined to eastern and southern Britain, and are unknown in Ireland. On
the other hand, there are Arctic species like the ground-beetle,
_Pelophila borealis_, and south-western species like the boring weevil,
_Mesites Tardyi_, common in Ireland, and represented in northern or
western Britain, but unknown in eastern Britain or