of the Oil Beetle, Meloe. 309 



opposition to the views of three of the most distinguished naturalists, Latreille, 

 Erichson and Brandt, but, entirely misunderstanding a communication made 

 to him by myself respecting the full-grown larva, Mr. Westwood has stated 

 that I have confirmed to him the observation of GeofFroy. — a statement that is 

 quite erroneous. The full-grown larva, as I shall show, is utterly dissimilar 

 to the perfect insect ; it has not the scaly head, and it never acquires a black 

 or dark colour, but is always, like the young larva, of a yellow or light 

 orange. The dissimilarity of appearance of the adult larva and imago is as 

 great as that of the full-grown larva and the very young. 



It must be acknowledged however, that the very young insect is in every 

 respect calculated to mislead those who have not watched its development 

 from the agg. The structure of its organs of manducation, its prehensile tarsi, 

 and its great activity of body, all seem to point it out as especially fitted, at 

 this stage of its existence, for some peculiar mode of life, very different from 

 that of its parent, — namely, a life of precarious parasitism. 



3. Habits of the Larva. 



The extreme interest attached to this inquiry has led me to endeavour to 

 ascertain something respecting the habits of this insect. The eggs obtained 

 in my earliest observations in April 1830 were hatched, as I have already 

 stated, on the 25th of May. I saw most of the larvae leave the egg as early 

 as five o'clock in the morning. They were confined in the tin box for several 

 days, during which time, the light being entirely excluded from them, they 

 remained quiet, and seemed but little disposed to escape. But after remain- 

 ing in confinement for ten or eleven days, during which the weather had 

 become much warmer, many of them crept out from beneath the lid of the 

 box and moved about with rapidity, agitating their palpi as they ran, as if in 

 search of food. Within a day or two longer nearly the whole of them had 

 removed from the interior of the box, and were distributed thickly over its 

 exterior, and also on the sill of the window, on the side most exposed to the 

 light. I then secured from three to four hundred of them in a phial, into 

 which I put several living Curculiones, and a single specimen of Malachius 

 bipustulatus. The Curculios remained in the phial undisturbed, but the young 

 Meloes instantly attached themselves in such numbers to the Malachius as 



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