Very minute. Antennæ composed of eleven joints, of which the three last form a club. Legs wide apart; tarsi five-jointed. Live in flowers, fungi, dead parts of plants, under bark, in the earth, in humblebees’ and ants’ nests, etc. The =Beet Beetle= (_Atomaria linearis_) is harmful: longish, egg-shaped, strongly convex; neck-shield as long as broad. Brownish black or dark brown. In fields where beet is cultivated for several years in succession, the beetles often increase in a prodigious way. They attack the seedlings, and devour the base of the stalk just below the surface of the soil, sometimes biting it half through. The attacked seedlings often die even before the cotyledons appear above the surface of the soil. Looking, therefore, in spring at fields infested by the beet beetle, the seedlings will appear quite normally developed in some few places, while in some other places there may be no plants at all: in many spots, again, small plants will be seen bearing only seed-leaves, withered and yellow. These cannot be pulled out of the ground, for they break off at the place gnawed by the beetle. It is often necessary to give two or three successive sowings, as the young crop is attacked again and again. The larva of the beet beetle is still unknown, though this undoubtedly develops in the beet-fields. _Remedy_: Suitable rotation. When the conditions will not permit this, the seed must be sown thickly, so that as many seedlings as possible may remain sound, should the beetles exert their destructive influence in the spring. Family: =Lamellicornia= (_Chafers_). [Illustration: FIG. 72.—_a_, Antennæ of male; _b_, of female Cockchafer. ] Body strong, stout (Fig. 65). The first joints of the antennæ have the usual shape; the last, three to seven, are very short, but broadened out on the inner side into leaf-like appendages, so that the end of the antennæ is fan-shaped (Fig. 72). The little leaves are laid together when at rest, so as to form a club-shaped thickened end; in flight, and when the attention of the beetle is excited, they are spread out like a fan. Legs strong; feet five-jointed. Flight rapid, somewhat awkward. Larvæ thick; body cylindrical, but curved; head hard, brown; rest of the body thin-skinned and yellowish white. The first three segments of the body bear legs. The curved larvæ can move about in the soil, but not on the surface. The beetles and larvæ devour vegetable substances; a comparatively small number of species feed on dung. [Illustration: FIG. 73.—_a_, abdomen of Common; _b_, of Horse-chestnut Cockchafer. ]