1. Beetles have long had their place in East Asian culture. Male beetles are aggressive creatures and will fight each other. The favourites with the fans of beetle fighting are the large-horned beetles, particularly the rhinoceros beetle, which can be as long as seven centimetres and has several large horns. Two beetles are put on a piece of wood with a hole in it where a female is resting. The beetle that runs or is pushed away first lose. A boy with a prize beetle is very proud of it and, of course, adults often gamble on the result. 2. Beetles are a very large family. They spend most of their lives well out of sight in old wood, tree roots, fruit and other types of vegetation, munching away for as much as four to five years if the food source is very poor. Then they become beetles, leading fairly short lives, flying and crawling around, mating and then dying, leaving behind eggs to start the cycle all over again. 3. In terms of ecosystems, beetles perform a useful function in recycling waste. They clear up old wood and consume animal dung. As soon as an elephant creates a pile of dung, thousands of beetles move in to eat it, live in it or roll it into small balls which they store underground, laying their eggs in it. When cattle farming first started on a large scale in Australia, there was a real problem as the local beetles were not interested in cow dung. Therefore, foreign species were brought in and Australia became sweet-smelling again. Dung beetles, known as scarabs, were actually gods in ancient Egypt. Just as a scarab rolled a ball of dung along and then buried it to create new life, the god Khepri rolled the sun across the sky and buried it at night, with new life emerging the next morning. You will find clay scarabs in the bandages of Egyptian mummies protecting the dead. 4. Weevils are beetles with long snouts; they feed on many of the plants that we consider valuable and wish to keep for ourselves. You can find one in your rice jar if you aren't careful. Cotton farmers hate the boll weevil. The insect loves to push its snout into growing cotton and eat it. Most types of fruit are associated with weevils. The young eat the roots or develop deep inside the plant, while the adults enjoy the leaves. 5. There are other beetles that we do not like. Blister beetles give off a strong chemical that harms human skin; Colorado beetles are yellow and black insects which destroy potatoes (they have actually inspired 'Wanted' posters in the United Kingdom); and the Asian long-horn beetle from China attacks growing trees rather than old ones. The Death Watch beetle makes a strange tapping noise, and the superstitious say it is a warning that someone is about to die. 6. One beetle that we love is the bright red, spotted ladybird. It is considered to be bad luck to kill this pretty insect and most people will help one that has flown indoors and can't find the way out. They are our friends because they are fearsome predators and eat a lot of insects that we really do not like. We are also kind to fireflies, flying beetles that use chemical flashes to find mates. We are less nice to the stunningly beautiful jewel beetles with their metallic sheen and lovely colours, especially gold, blue and green. Their wing cases are so attractive that the beetles are caught so that they can be used for jewellery. 7. Then there are water beetles. Some eat underwater plants; others are hunters. Whirligigs go round and round just as their name suggests. They swim in circles looking for snacks and have split eyes, so that they can look up for dangerous birds and down for dangerous fish. 8. And Hong Kong? We have our own species, in particular a group of tumbling flower beetles. These little insects live among flowers and when in danger spring or fall away - in other words, tumble out of danger. Sounds like a good idea, doesn't it? Match these beetles with the descriptions. 1. blister beetles 2. boll weevils 3. Colorado beetles 4. Death Watch beetles 5. fireflies 6. jewel beetles 7. ladybirds 8. long-horn beetles 9. rhinoceros beetles 10. scarabs 11. tumbling beetles 12. whirligigs a. yellow potato-lover b. collected by boys c. small and local d. makes a strange noise e. water hunters f. contains a burning liquid g. dung-roller h. shiny colours i. destroys healthy trees j. insect eater k. lights up at night l. cotton plant pests Answers 1. f; 2. l; 3. a; 4. d; 5. k; 6. h; 7. j; 8. I; 9. b; 10. g; 11. c; 12. e
