Page:The New International Encyclopædia 1st ed. v. 02.djvu/793

BEETLE. weeks, but in some cases it lasts several years. On aocount of the hardness of the exoskeleton, bee- tles retain their shape well when dried, and hence collections of them are made with more ease than is possible in other departments of entomology, and adult beetles have been studied more than any other order of insects.

Cl.vssificatiox. The enormous numbers of beetles do not adequately impress us, since bee- tles are less on the wing, and hence we see them less than flies, wasps, butterllies, or moths. The form and variation of the external parts are almost wholly used to determine their classifica- tion. The present number of described species is not far from 150,000, of which more than 11,000 species inhabit America north of Jlexico, rejire- senting 8.3 families. The old subordinal di- visions — Clavicornia. Serricornia. etc. — based on the shape of the antenn*. arc no Innpier accepted as scientific, and in their place various subdi- visions have been proposed. A commonly accept- ed classification is the following, based on the tarsi: (1) Cri/ptotetrnmcra — 4 joints in the tarsus, one rudimentary: Coccinelliila; and Endo- mychid:T>. (2) Criiptopenlumcra — .') joints, one being abortive: Chrysonielidse. Ceranibycid!^ (longicorns), Brenthidae, Curculionida", etc. (.3) TIeteromrrn — four front tarsi five-jointed, bind tarsi four-jointed : Meloidie. Rtylopidfp, Tenebrionidiip. etc. (4) Pentnmcra — five-jointed: rtinids, Clerida", Lampyrida;, ElateridiE, Bu- prestidiE (serricorns), Scaraba'id:p (lamelli- corns), HydrophilidiP, etc., including about half of all known beetles.

Many of these, and other families, will be found described ehsewhere, in their vocabulary places. See also English names of groups or species, as Kove Beetle; Firefly; Bombardier Beetle; Stag Beetle, etc.

Bibliography. For general works, see In- sects. For the most recent and only complete classification of North American Coleoptera, consult : I^ Conte and Horn. A Classification of the Coleoptera of iSorth America, Smithsonian Institution (Washington, 1883) ; Leng and Beutenmiiller pnblislied serially in the Journal of the ew York I^ntomological Society for 1894- 'J7 the early parts of a Handbook of the Coleop- tera of 'Northeastern America; and Canadian beetles are coered by a long series of articles by F. H. Wickham in the Canadian Entomologist (London, Ontario, 1894-9!)). Most of the litera- ture applies to single families, and will be found mentioned underneath the accounts of these given elsewhere.

BEE'TLESTONE'. A hard nodule of clay ironstone composed of shale. It is found at •Newhaven, Wales. It is capable of taking a high polish, and is therefore used by lapidaries to make ornaments. The name beetlestone is from a fossil frequently found in the nucleus of the nodule; the fossil was formerly supposed to be a beetle, but is now knoTi to be a eoprylite.

BEET'LING ( beetle, a heavy wooden mallet, from the root beat). A mechanical finishing process applied originally to linen shirting, and afterwards to cotton shirting, in imitation of linen, to give the cloth a liard and wiry look, by fiattening the j'arn irregularly in an angled man- ner. This is done by upright wooden stamps, placed close together in a row, w-ith their square butts resting on a roller over which the cloth passes, doubled in a particular waj', so that the yarn, when struck, acquires an angled appear- ance. Linen weft j'arn for sail-cloth is likewise beetled by such a machine, or by hand-hammer- ing on a large flat stone with a w'Ooden mallet, to soften the yarn for easiness of working it in weaving. The yarn is also passed between longi- tudinally grooved rollers for the same ]nirpose. Beetling is likewise a process in llax-dressing, to separate the woody from the flexible fibres of the plant. See Linen.

BEET'-PULP'. A term applied to the mass of sliced sugar-beet remaining after the extraction of the sugar. It is a voluminous by-i)roduct of beet-sugar factories, and with the growth of the beet-sugar industry the means of utiliz- ing it have received considerable attention. Beet-pulp is fed quite extensively to cattle and sheep, and in Europe has been successfully fed tc milch cows. Large feeding-sheds are erected near the factories in some ])arts of the Ihiited States, several thousand head of steers and sheep being fed ujion the beet-pulp, supplemented by hay and a little grain. The pulp contains about 90 per cent, of water, and in the wet condition must be fed at once or preserved in silos, which may be very crude. It would not pay for haul- ing any distance. In Europe it is dried at some factories, 'and then keeps well. See Sugar.

BEET'-BOOT' SU'GAR. See Sugar. BEETS, Iiats, XiK0L.4.AS (1814-1904). A Dutch poet ami author, born at Haarlem. He became professor of theology at the University of Utrecht, but is principally known by his contri- butions to belles-lettres. His Camera Obscura (1839), which he published under the pseudo- nym of Hildebrand, has been called the finest piece of prose in the Dutch literature of the last century. It has been translated into several modern languages. His poetry, though inferior to his prose, enjoyed also great popularity. Among his poetic tales may be mentioned (lui/ de yiaming (1853) and Ada ran Holland (1840). His lyrie songs include Korenbloemen (1853); Xieuwe gedichten (1857); and Ver- strooide gedirhten (1862). His poetry was published in four volumes (1873-81). He was also the author of some critical essays and several works on theology, among them Stichtelijke uren (184S-0).

BEETZ, bats, Wilhelm von (1822-8G). A German physicist, born at Berlin. He was at first professor of physics at the artillery school there. In 1856 he was appointed professor of physics at the University of Bern, and in 1S59 at the University of Frlangen. He was called to the chair of physics at tlic Munich Polytechni- kuni in 18C8. He made researches in regard to the electrical conductivity of liquids, galvanic polarization, and other problems; contributed extensively to Poggendorff's Annalen, and pub- lished Leitfaden der Pliysik (2d ed., 1857; 10th ed.. 1890) and Grundziige der Electricitiiislehre (1878)'.

BEE'VILLE. A town and county-seat of Bee County, Tex., 90 miles southeast of San Antonio ; on the San Antonio and Aransas Pass and the Texas and Pacific railroads (Map: Texas, F 5). It has a mild and equable climate, is in a region adapted to fruit and vegetable growing, and exports live stock, cotton, etc. Population, about 3000.