298 Mr. Newport on the Natural Histoi-y 



to lead, respecting so extraordinary a change in the economy of an insect as 

 that of its passing from a life of parasitism to one of a totally opposite con- 

 dition. But such indeed appears to be the fact ; and the details of the obser- 

 vations 1 am about to communicate ought perhaps to teach us not to treat 

 with contumely or doubt that which we are unable positively to disprove, 

 however stiange or anomalous any statements of direct observations may 

 appear, or however incongruous they may seem to be with established facts, 

 when such statements are made by observers of otherwise acknowledged 

 credit. 



It is now more than fifteen years ago since I first endeavoured to trace the 

 changes of y]/e/oe; but although I succeeded at that time, and throi/gh several 

 following years, in observing the deposition of the eggs, and in obtaining the 

 larvae from them, and also in procuring the adult larva, the nymph, and the 

 perfect insect before it left the cell in which it had undergone its metamor- 

 phoses, I have been unable to obtain the means, so satisfactorily as I could 

 have wished, of showing the transitional forms which the larva assumes in 

 passing from its earliest to its full-grown state. On this account I have 

 forborne to make known the facts I have been for many years acquainted 

 with respecting these insects. Fearing however that I may not again have 

 an opportunity of pursuing this inquiry, I now propose to communicate these 

 facts to the Linnean Society, in the hojie that some naturalist, more fortunate 

 than myself, may complete the investigation. 



1. Of the Perfect Insect. 



The species of Meloe that have been the subjects of my inquiry, are Meloe 

 proscarabceus, M. violaceus, and M. cicatricosus, but more especially the latter, 

 although the whole very closely resemble each other in form as well as in their 

 habits and economy. 



My observations have been made at intervals since the year 1830, on spe- 

 cimens obtained from a vertical bank of clay and sand that forms the south- 

 eastern boundary of the ruins of the Roman castle at Richborough, near 

 Sandwich in Kent, where these insects, at their proper season, are most 

 abundant. The perfect insects come forth at that place very early in the 

 spring, and sometimes, when the temperature of the atmosphere has become 

 suddenly elevated for a few days, even long before the plants on which they 



