300 Mr. Newport on the Natural History 



and not only require their food to be fresh-gathered, but also that it should 

 be frequently wetted, otherwise they will not thrive. They pair during the 

 forenoon and middle part of a very fine day, a few days after they have left 

 their hybernacula. The males are exceedingly salacious, and traverse the fields 

 with great rapidity in search of their partners. When the object of solicitude 

 is discovered, the male salutes her on the thorax and body with his antennae, 

 and vibrating his palpi rapidly with delight, repeatedly touches her lightly on 

 the upper part of the head and front with these organs, as if caressing her 

 with great earnestness. The connubial intercourse often lasts from two to 

 three hours, during which the antennae of the female are clasped by those 

 of her partner, and she continues to feed as if almost unconscious of his 

 presence. 



When the two sexes of different species of Meloe are confined together, an 

 intercourse sometimes takes place between them ; the male of M. violaceus 

 with the female of M. proscarabceus, and vice versd ; and sometimes the male 

 of one of these species with the female of M. cicatricosus. But I have never 

 observed this aberration of instinct when the insects are at large in their 

 native haunts, although it is well-known to occur between different species of 

 another family, the Telephoridce. The males are exceedingly pugnacious, and 

 often fight and deprive each other of one of the antennae. 



The eggs are deposited a few days after impregnation ; but when this has 

 been retarded, oviposition may take place within a very few hours. An im- 

 pregnated female, captured by Goedart on the 5th of May, did not deposit her 

 eggs until the 12th, a period of seven days. But even this period may be 

 greatly extended, as it is in part subject to the will of the insect. If there is 

 no place in which the parent can deposit her eggs in safety, she will some- 

 times die without depositing them at all. Goedart* and DeGeerf have 

 stated that the Meloe deposits her eggs in the earth, and the accuracy of this 

 statement I have repeatedly confirmed. In the afternoon of the 6th of April 

 1830, I first observed a female M. violaceus busily employed in digging a 

 hole beneath a turf of grass at the side of a dry footpath. At the time I dis- 

 covered her she had penetrated to the depth of an inch in an inclined direc- 

 tion. In less than half an hour she had finished her excavation, and having 



* Goed. M^tamor., tome ii. t DeGeer, M^m., tome v. pp. 8-12. 



