308 Mr. Newport on the Natural History 



This larva is extremely active in all its movements. It runs with great 

 celerity, and then uses only its six true legs. But it can also climb up a 

 nearly smooth and vertical surface, as for instance on glass, or can walk in 

 a reversed position. In these movements it makes use of its anal prolegs. 

 When walking in a reversed position it invariably uses these parts, which are 

 employed in exactly the same way as by the lulidce and the larvae of other 

 insects. The body is moved along in the manner of the Geometridous cater- 

 pillars ; the segments of the abdomen are first shortened and moved forward 

 as far as possible, the prolegs are then attached, and the whole body is pro- 

 jected onwards by a measured step, or as it were a leap. 



Such is the larva of Meloe immediately after it has left the egg. It then 

 measures about one-twelfth of an inch in length. Thus my own observations, 

 in so far as they relate to the evolution of this larva from the egg of Meloe, 

 entirely agree with those originally made by Goedart*, and by DeGeerf, both 

 of whom obtained this little hexapod from eggs deposited by Meloi', and both 

 have given very precise details of the fact. Similar observations have since 

 been made by Mr. E. DoubledayJ, Saint Fargeau and Serviile§, Brandt and 

 Erichson If, and still more recently by the Rev. L, Jenyns^ ; and yet in face of 

 the direct statements of all these authorities, an acute entomologist of the pre- 

 sent day, Mr. Westwood**, conceives himself " warranted" in coming to the 

 conclusion, that this hexapod " cannot be the larva of Meloe." In support of 

 this conclusion Mr. Westwood quotes some remarks on Meloe by GeofFroyff . 

 But Geoffroy's remarks, respecting the larva of Meloe, are incorrect. They 

 appear to have been made on the larva of Timarcha tenehricosa, which he seems 

 to have mistaken for that of Meloe. GeofFroy says of the full-grown larva of 

 Meloe, that it " ressemble beaucoup a I'animal parfait. Elle est de meme cou- 

 leur, grosse, lourde, n'ayant que la tete 6cailleuse et tout le reste du corps mol. 

 On la trouve enfoncee dans la terre, oh. elle fait sa metamorphose." This is 

 totally incorrect, in so far as it refers to Meloe, bat is most accurate as regards 

 the larva of Timarcha. Yet not only is this insisted on by Mr. Westwood, in 



* Mem. tome ii. p. 181. f M^moires, tome v. p. 8. % Entom. Mag. voLii. p. 453. 



§ Encyclop. vol. x. || Nova Acta Acad. Nat. Curios, vol. xvi. 



^ Westwood's Introd. Mod. Classification of Insects, vol. i. p. 302. ** Loc. cit. 



tt Hist Nat. Ins. tome i. p. 377. 



