ZOOLOGY. 319 



the type of a distinct family (Hypocephalidce) , Dr. Le Conte 

 adopts the view that it belongs to a distinct type ; but he 

 also goes further, and maintains the opinion that it is still 

 more isolated, and represents a fragment of a very old fauna, 

 to which other forms of beetles mio-ht be added, each of 

 which (Trictenotoma, Cupes, JRhysodes, and the JBrenthidcB) 

 possesses a certain number of characters in common which 

 separate them from all other beetles, and link them together 

 as representatives of the ancien regime. "It has been my 

 opinion," he adds, " expressed many years ago, that by the 

 careful study of the existing forms of insects, which, for rea- 

 sons given elsewhere both by others and myself, contain a 

 greater number of ancient survivals than any other land ani- 

 mals, these ancient survivals could be recognized and sepa- 

 rated ; so that we would have by this depuration the evolu- 

 tions of the present geological age more distinctly separated 

 and denned in our systems of classification; and that we 

 would also be able to ascertain their proper connection (ideal 

 or genetic, or both) with those which existed in past time. 

 I now believe, in addition, that the number of these survivals 

 is so great that we shall have a quite respectable mass of 

 material for the partial reconstruction of the insect fauna 

 of past ages, especially if studied in connection with geo- 

 graphical distribution. The material which we can expect 

 to o-ather from this line of study will be much Greater than 

 what may be expected from the rocks, in which the frag- 

 ments, badly preserved for the most part, afford us very un- 

 certain and usually very modern evidence of little value." 



M. Vallery Mayet has succeeded in rearing to the beetle 

 state the larva of Adelops Delarouzei, a blind beetle living in 

 the caves of the Eastern Pyrenees. This is an exceedingly 

 interesting fact; for, though Packard has described and fi>- 

 ured the larva of the Adelops of the Mammoth Cave, no 

 species of this beetle has been actually reared, and the pupa 

 was unknown. 



It has been suggested by an anonymous author, in a mar- 

 ginal note found in an old copy of Geoffroy's "History of 

 Insects," that the asparagus beetle (Crioceris asparagi) is 

 viviparous. This needs confirmation, for it rarely happens, 

 if at all, that any beetle brings forth its young alive. Still, 

 however, according to M. Reiche, one beetle (Oreina) is 



