of the Oil Beetle, Me\oe. 327 



Dr. Gebler states, reside in the ground, probably in the nests of some Hi/- 

 menoptera. M. Gen6* has shown that the eggs and larvae oi Apalus bimacu- 

 latus closely resemble those ofMeloe, and that they are precisely similar in form 

 and habit to the so-called Triungulinus Andrenetarum of Dufour. M. Gen6 

 however was unable to trace the growth of these larvae, probably from causes 

 similar to those which have hitherto prevented our tracing the early stages of 

 growth in Meloe. The larva of Sitaris also, according to the figure given by 

 Mr, Westwoodf, resembles that of Meloe in some of its characters, and appa- 

 rently also in its kind of parasitism, MM. Audouin and Pecchioli;}: found the 

 eggs of Sitaris Solieri, with the larvae within them almost ready to burst 

 their envelopes, deposited in great abundance, in a white glutinous material, 

 on the flowers of the rosemary, in the neighbourhood of Pisa ; besides a great 

 number of larvae on the ground, which had recently come forth, but which they 

 were unable to follow through their changes. The eggs closely resembled 

 those of Sitaris humeralis, which insect M. Audouin had seen deposit her ova, 

 and from which ova the larvae delineated by the naturalist above-mentioned 

 were obtained. M. Audouin also had found the perfect insect in the nest of 

 an Anthophora. Sitaris humeralis seems to have been taken in this country 

 formerly by Mr. Kirby, as there are three specimens in the Kirbian collection. 

 A few years since it was found by the Rev. Mr. Badger § in some abundance 

 on a wall at Chelsea in the month of September. In that month also, in 1841, 

 it was taken by Mr. S. Stevens |1, on the wall of his garden at Hammersmith ; 

 and it was at that period of the year that M. Pecchioli^ found both sexes of 

 Sitaris Solieri at Pisa, in coitu, in great abundance on the wild rosemary. 

 M. Pecchioli met with this species at two distant periods, and in different 

 localities, but always on the same kind of plant. M. Rambuhr** also found 

 many specimens o( Sitaris in the cells oi Hymenoptera, in dry ground, exposed 

 to a northern rather than to a southern aspect. From these facts it appears cer- 



* Westwood's Introduction^ vol. i. p. 299. 

 t Ibid, p. 294. fig. 34. No. 4, 5. 



X Annales de la Soc. Entomologique de France, Dec. 4, 1839, p. xlvii, tome tuL 

 § Westwood's Introduction, vol. i. p. 298. 

 II Minute-Book Entom. Soc. Lond., Sept. 5, 1841. 

 ^ Loc. cit. p. xlvii. ** Ibid, 



