BLISTER=BEETLES. 



black or blue elytra. The antennae vary from simple 

 in some species, through saw-toothed, to comb-like or 

 branched in the males of others. The larvas have a broad 

 head, stout legs, and two spines on the tip of the abdomen. 

 Dendroidcs may be distinguished from other genera by 

 having very large eyes which nearly touch each other. 



MELOID^E 



Concerning this curious family, I take the liberty of 

 quoting at some length from Sharp's excellent account of 

 insects in the Cambridge Natural History. 



"This distinct family consists of Heteromera with soft 

 integument, and is remarkable for the fact that many of its 

 members contain a substance that, when extracted and 

 applied to the human skin, possesses the power of raising 

 blisters. The life-history is highly remarkable, the most 

 complex forms of hypermetamorphosis being exhibited. 

 The species now known amount to about 1 500. . . . There 

 are two very distinct subfamilies, Cantharides and 

 Meloides ; the former are winged Insects, and are frequently 

 found on flowers or foliage. The Meloides are wingless, 

 and consequently terrestrial; they have a very short 

 metasternum, so that the middle coxas touch the hind; 

 and they also have very peculiar wing-cases, one of the 

 two overlapping the other at the base; in a few Meloids 

 the wing-cases are merely rudiments. 



"The post-embryonic development of these Insects is 

 amongst the most remarkable of modern entomological 

 discoveries. The first steps were made by Newport in 

 1851, and the subject has since been greatly advanced by 

 Fabre, Riley, and others. As an example of these peculiar 

 histories, we may cite Riley 's account of Epicauta vittata 

 [See Plate LXXXV], a blister-beetle living at the expense 

 of North American locusts of the genus Caloptcrnus 

 [Melanoplus]. The locust lays its eggs underground in 

 masses surrounded by an irregular capsule, and the Epicauta 

 deposits its eggs in spots frequented by the locust, but not 

 in special proximity to the eggs thereof. In a few days 

 the eggs of the blister-beetle hatch, giving rise to little 

 larvae [a] of the kind called triungulin, because each leg is 



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