320 Mr. Newport on the Natural History of the Oil Beetle, Meloe. 



cavity, like the cell of the bee ; but it is somewhat more elongated, and is a 

 little irregular in its interior, as if altered by the larva before its previous 

 change of skin. The larva then measures three-quarters of an inch in length. 

 It is composed, as in each of its preceding stages, of fourteen segments, and 

 has ten pairs of spiracles. It is of a semilunar form, with the sides of its 

 body thinned and dilated. It has a small head, with short tuberculiform an- 

 tennae, palpi and legs. The tegument thrown off at its previous change of skin, 

 — up to which time it seems to continue in an active state, — always remains 

 partially adhering to the inferior and posterior surface of its body. On re- 

 moving this tegument and relaxing it in water, and then examining it with 

 the microscope, I have obtained good evidence that the larva in all its pre- 

 ceding states is an active creature, furnished, as in the state in which I have 

 found the larva just described, in the cell of the bee-nymph, with strong, 

 toothed, and slightly obtuse mandibles. Up to the period of change to the 

 almost apodal larva it retains its three pairs of short scaly feet, each formed of 

 a coxa, femur, tibia, and tarsus, terminated by a single, short, but strong 

 claw, the lateral divisions, or tarsal spines, having been entirely lost. These 

 circumstances lead us to further inquiry respecting the early habits of this 

 anomalous creature. Does it remain constantly in the same nest of Antho- 

 phora} or is it erratic, and accustomed to penetrate into different nests for 

 food, and at last remain in one to undergo its transformations ? The hard 

 structure of its mandibles and claws seems to indicate some such habit. 



Such is the larva of Meloe. The length of time it remains in its helpless 

 and apodal state is not many days. It then changes to a nymph, without 

 entirely throwing off the larva-skin, which is simply fissured along the dorsal 

 surface of the thoracic segments, and detached from the body. It remains in- 

 closed in this skin, like a corpse in its shroud, up to the time when it assumes 

 the imago state, by throwing off a very thin pellicle. This takes place within 

 ten days or a fortnight after the larva lias become a nymph ; but if the season 

 is unfavourable, the period of this completion of its changes is retarded. It 

 remains in its cell through the autumn and succeeding winter as a perfect 

 insect, in a state of hybernation, until it is aroused into activity by the gra- 

 dually increasing influence of the season, and leaves its nidus early in the 

 following spring. 



