512 PSYCHOLOGICAL PHYSIOLOGY. 



Myrmecoleon, in the order of the Neuroptera, is very similar to this, 

 which is also found abundantly in sandy places, and here excavates 

 a funnel-shaped cavity, at the bottom of which it lies concealed with 

 its mandibles projecting, and it likewise seizes and sucks all insects 

 which by mischance fall in, and then throws away the empty case 

 by placing it on its head and giving it a jerk. These two larvae are, 

 however, almost the only ones in which we observe such striking and 

 exceedingly sagacious methods of procuring their food, the majority of 

 the rest of the carnivorous larvae hunt about like the beetles for prey. 

 The larvae of the Carabodca are found especially in the earth, beneath 

 stones, and in other nooks, where they prey upon the vegetable- 

 devouring larvae, which seek a place of safety. It does not, how- 

 ever, appear that the law that carnivorous animals shall not destroy 

 other carnivora is strictly obeyed, for indeed the larvae of one species 

 frequently devour those of another, which Miger states of the voracious 

 larvae of the Cicindelce. The black larva of Calosoma sycophant a 

 devours with appetite the caterpillar of the Lepidoptera, especially that 

 of Liparis dispar ; consequently, where this caterpillar is abundant 

 they are also abundantly found. They are then observed to pursue their 

 food even by day, and knowing that the caterpillars are found especially 

 upon trees, they themselves climb up and there attack them. It is 

 chiefly in the morning about sunrise that they are to be found there ; I 

 have also detected the perfect insect in the same pursuit. We cannot, 

 however, maintain that other larvae possess peculiar instincts for obtain- 

 ing their food. The vegetable feeders are deposited in the egg state 

 by the mother in the vicinity of plants, where they find their food. 

 This is likewise the case with the perfect insect. The Lepidoptera 

 and Hymenoptera fly from flower to flower, visiting at pleasure now 

 this and now that ; insects which devour vegetable substances dwell 

 in the vicinity of the plants which serve them as food, or if less particular 

 in their choice, they feed wherever it presents itself ; a few undertake 

 wider migrations for theirs, as the locust, and devour every vege- 

 table they meet with. But it is not a migratory insect in the same 

 sense as in birds, but it is found almost all over Germany, sometimes 

 singly and sometimes in bodies, but sometimes their numbers are so 

 great that one district is no longer able to support them, and they then 

 undertake their devastating expeditions. Other species of this genus 

 also seem to possess this wandering propensity, at least the South 



