of the Oil Beetle, Meloe. 353 



of the thorax with the abdomen, the articulations of the wings, and of the head 

 with the thorax, &e., have led me now to a different opinion. The entire 

 mouth seems quite unfitted to take the food that is stored up for the young 

 bee, and it differs entirely from that of the bee itself. The mandibles are not 

 short and broad organs, adapted for bruising the pollen, but are thin, fal- 

 cated, sharp-pointed structures, admirably formed for piercing and cutting 

 delicate tissues. A like structure of the mandible exists in the larva of Lytta, 

 and also in that of Sitaris. In the larva Meloe the mandible is very slender, 

 acute, and three-jointed (fig. 8), as in the inferior class Myriapoda, and nearly 

 resembles that of Cermatia and Lithobius, most distinctly carnivorous genera, 

 in which the part retains its original pedal form. But in Sitaris, as appears 

 from the delineation given by Mr. Westwood, the mandible is not only acute 

 and falcated, but is also toothed on its inner margin. Sitaris, like Meloe, we 

 have seen is parasitic in the nests of Anthophora. Now this form of mandible 

 rarely or ever exists except in carnivorous or parasitic insects, as in the truly 

 carnivorous larvae of Dytiscus, Lampyris, Staphylinus, Coccinella, Sialis, Li- 

 bellula, and other predaceous genera. On the other hand, this form of man- 

 dible is never found in the true vegetable-feeding insects, or in their larvae. 

 In these the mandible is usually obtuse, and fitted for crushing and bruising; 

 sometimes it is pointed at its apex and obtusely denticulated, but always it is 

 short, broad, and very strong at its base. This, as we shall hereafter find, is 

 the structure of the mandible in the perfect Meloe (fig. 9), which feeds entirely 



furnished with a pair of short articulated styles, and the sides of the abdomen, head and thorax with 

 long hairs. 



On the 25th of February two of these specimens had assumed the imago state, and the third was 

 then in the act of doing so, and was throwing off its tegument. They were at first perfectly white, 

 delicate, and unable to crawl. The antennae, thorax and parts of the mouth quickly assumed a fer- 

 ruginous hue, but the elytra and body continued white for two or three days. The strongest of the 

 two specimens which had changed was greatly inconvenienced by exposure to light, and attempted to 

 creep up the sides of the glass and escape from its influence, but was as yet too weak to do so. 



The whole of the specimens remained in the burrows they had excavated in the dry clay until 

 the 8th of March, when they came forth, and proved to be a species of the family Engidoe, Crypto- 

 phagus cellaris of PaykuU. 



It is worthy of remark, that the circumstance of these larvae feeding on the rejectamenta of the 

 young bee, voided at its change, invalidates a statement made by Mr. Westwood with regard to insects 

 of this group, that they " never attack either living or dead animal matter'." 



' Introduction to the Modern Classification of Insects, vol. i. p. 144. 



