44 The Curious World of Beetles

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The Curious World of Beetles by Doris Licameli Table of Contents Introduction page 2 Chapter 1 What Do Beetles Look Like? page 4 Chapter 2 Beetles Protect Themselves page 6 Chapter 3 Big, Small, and Beautiful Beetles. page 8 Chapter 4 Beetles that Hunt page 12 Conclusion page 14 Glossary/ Index page 15 Comprehension Check page 16

Introduction There are more than 300,000 types of beetles. They live everywhere except in the oceans. Beetles come in many different shapes and colors. Some beetles harm plants. But other beetles help our environment. They eat dead plants and animals. They help clean the environment. This is a very close look at a beetle. antennae body leg wings Beetles are insects with six legs. Most beetles have two pairs of wings. The front wings protect the soft part of a beetle's body and back wings. Beetles use their back wings to fly.

Chapter 1 What Do Beetles Look Like? Some beetles look like other animals. The giraffe weevil is a beetle that looks like a giraffe. The giraffe weevil's long snout looks like a giraffe's neck. A giraffe weevil grows up to 3 inches (7.62 cm) long. The rhinoceros beetle has horns like a real rhinoceros. Male rhinoceros beetles use their horns to fight other males. horns: hard, pointed parts that grow on the head of some animals or insects snout neck The bodies of a giraffe weevil and a real giraffe look a lot alike. Beetles can look like other things too. The Australian ground beetle looks like a seed when it hides its legs. The violin beetle of Indonesia looks like a violin, a type of musical instrument. The flat violin shape of the beetle helps it to hide between layers of plants. layers: levels Violin Beetle INDONESIA

Chapter 2 Beetles Protect Themselves Beetles have to be careful. Many animals eat beetles. Some beetles have ways to escape from their predators. The bombardier beetle protects itself with a hot spray. This spray comes out of the back of its body. It can kill smaller insects. Bombardier Beetle spray Fast Fact Bombardier beetles can spray 500 to 1,000 times a second. Tumbling Flower Beetle The tumbling flower beetle tumbles, or falls, to escape from a predator. It tumbles down from a plant to the ground. The leaf roller weevil needs to protect its eggs from predators. It cuts up a leaf and puts its egg inside. Then it can roll up the leaf to cover the egg. Language DETECTIVE Clue: The word roll is a multiple- meaning word. Look up roll in a dictionary. What does roll mean on this page? What is another meaning of the word? Leaf Roller Weevil

Chapter 3 Big, Small, and Beautiful Beetles Look at the dot of the letter i. It's the size of the one of the smallest beetles. This beetle is called the fungi beetle, or feather-wing beetle. Now imagine a beetle more than 7 inches (17.78 cm) long! An adult longhorn beetle grows that big. This beetle lives in the Amazon Rain Forest. This is what a feather-wing beetle looks like under a microscope. Longhorn Beetle Ladybug Hercules Beetle Rhino Beetle Goliath Beetle Tumbling Flower Beetle The African goliath beetle is very heavy. It weighs more than 3 ounces (85 g). That is heavier than some small animals! The African goliath is also very long. It grows up to 6 inches (15.24 cm). Did You Know...? The African goliath is a type of scarab beetle. There are 30,000 different types of scarab beetles.