356 INSECT A. 



has the faculty of elongating- and shortening its body, and of 

 bending it underneath. It is probably carnivorous. 



L. italica, L. ; Oliv., Col. II, 28, 11, 12; the Lucciola of the 

 Italians. The thorax does not cover the whole head, is trans- 

 versal, and as well as the scutel, pectus and one pair of legs red- 

 dish; head, elytra and abdomen black; the two last annuli of 

 the body yellowish; wings to both sexes(l). 

 In our second division of the Lampyrides, the antennae are very 

 remote at base; the head is neither prolonged nor narrowed ante- 

 riorly in the form of a snout, and the eyes are of an ordinary size 

 in both sexes. 



Drilus, Oliv. Ptilinus, Geoff. Fab. 



The males are winged, and the inner side of the antennae, from 

 the fourth joint, is prolonged like the tooth of a comb. Those of 

 the females are shorter, somewhat perfoliaceous and slightly ser- 

 rated. The maxillary palpi in both sexes are thicker towards the 

 end, and terminate in a point. The inner side of the mandibles pre- 

 sents a tooth. 



The female of the species which is the type of the genus, and 

 whose male is tolerably common, remained unknown until lately, as 

 well as the metamorphoses of both sexes. Certain observations 

 made at Geneva, by Count Mielzinsky, on the larva of this Insect 

 and the perfect female, excited the attention of two able French na- 

 turalists, MM. Desmarest and Victor Audouin. The latter had 

 received from the author of the discovery several living larvae, 

 which were found in the shell of a Helix nemoralis of Linnaeus, and 

 which together with the perfect female, the only sex he had obtained 

 in that state, were described by him. But he was mistaken in con- 

 sidering as pupae, larvae which had attained their full growth, and 

 which pass the winter* in the interior of these shells. In this 

 state, these Insects are tolerably similar to the larvae of the Euro- 

 pean Lampyrides, but there are a range of conical mammillae on 

 each side of their abdomen, and two series of hairy tufts on other 

 elevations of the same nature. The posterior extremity of the body 

 is forked, and the anus is used by the animal as a means of progress- 

 ion. It soon devours the legitimate owner of the shell, whence the 

 generic appellation of Cochleoctonus, given to this Insect by the 

 naturalist above mentioned. M. Desmarest presuming that as 

 these larvae were common in the neighbourhood of Geneva, they 

 might also be found in the vicinity of Paris, by the aid of his pupils 



(1) Sec Fabricius, and Olivier, Col. II, No. 28. 



