306 Mr. Newport on the Natural History 



egg of Meloe, should have somewhat doubted the accounts that have been 

 given of it as the young of that insect. As I have many times witnessed the 

 actual bursting of the egg-shell, and the coming forth of this little hexapod, 

 perhaps it may be well, while adding my testimony to the fact, as ah-eady 

 announced by other naturalists, to state the manner in which this is effected. 



When the embryo larva is ready for its change, the egg-shell becomes 

 thinned and concave on that side which covers the ventral surface of the 

 body, but is much enlarged, and more convex on the dorsal, especially 

 towards the head. The shell is then burst longitudinally along the middle 

 of the thoracic segments, and the fissure is extended forwards to the head, 

 which then, together with the thoracic segments, is partially forced through 

 the opening, but is not at once entirely withdrawn. The antennae, parts of 

 the mouth, and legs, are still inclosed within separate envelopes, and retain the 

 larva in this covering in the shell. Efforts are then made to detach the pos- 

 terior segments of the body, which are gradually released, and with them the 

 antennae, palpi and legs, and the larva removes itself entirely from the shell 

 and membranes. In this process of evolution the young Meloe throws off two 

 distinct coverings :■ — first, the shell with its lining membrane, the analogue of 

 the membrane in which, as I have elsewhere shown*, the young Myriapod is 

 inclosed, and retained for several days, after the bursting of the ovum, and 

 which represents in the Articulata, not the allantois, but apparently the am- 

 nion, of Vertebrata : next, the first, or foetal deciduation of the tegument ; 

 analogous probably to the first change of skin in the Myriapod, after it has 

 escaped from the amnion, and also to the first change which the young Arach- 

 nidan invariably undergoes a few days after it has left the egg, and before it 

 can take food. This tegument, which, perhaps, may be analogous to the 

 vemix caseosa of Vertebrata, thrown off at the instant of birth, is left by the 

 young Meloe with the amnion in the shell ; and its separation from the body 

 at this early period seems necessary to fit the insect for the active life it has 

 commenced. 



The shell and membranes are so delicate, when the larva has removed from 

 them, that their existence can hardly be detected by the naked eye, and even 

 with a lens of low power they may readily be overlooked, and the ovum seem 



* Phil. Trans., part 2, 1841, p. 111. 



