72 ENTOMOLOGICAL NEWS. [Feb., 'lO 



On the Habits of Beetles of the genus Nemognatha. 



BY S. GRAENICHER, Public Museum, Milwaukee. 



These Meloid beetles are of unusual interest in more than 

 one respect. The larvae of the Meloidae, as also of the Rhipi- 

 phoridae and Stylopidae are parasitic in their habits, and pass 

 through a series of transformations known as hypermetamor- 

 phosis. This subject has been thoroughly dealt with in a paper 

 on "Some Hypermetamorphic Beetles and Their Hymenopter- 

 ous Hosts," University Studies (Nebraska), Vol. 4, No. 2; 

 April, 1904. Comparatively little is known of the life history 

 of those Meloid beetles that pass their larval stage in the nests 

 of bees or wasps, as for example species of Meloe, Cantharis, 

 Sitaris and Zonitis. In its first stage (instar) such a larva has 

 the terminal joints of its feet fitted with claws whereby it is 

 enabled to cling to some insect with which it may come in con- 

 tact. In this form it is called a triunguline, and is found on 

 flowers, awaiting its chance to attach itself to a flower visiting 

 insect, thereby to be transported to the nest of its host. 



To my knowledge nothing has been reported so far concern- 

 ing the larval life of the beetles belonging to the genus Nemog- 

 natlia. In the adult stage these insects show in structure and 

 habits a remarkable degree of adaptation to flowers. Atten- 

 tion was called to this fact about 30 years ago by Hermann 

 Mueller, the well-known naturalist, to whom we owe such a 

 wealth of information concerning the mutual relations between 

 insects and flowers. After considering the structural peculi- 

 arities of the flower visiting beetles of Europe, Mueller states 

 that some tropical and sub-tropical beetles present much more 

 thorough adaptation to flower-food. Thus in a species of 

 Nernognatha which my brother Fritz Mueller observed sucking 

 flowers of Convolvulus at Itajahy (in South Brazil), the outer 

 maxillary lobes (galeae) are modified into sharp grooved 

 bristles (12 mm. long), which when apposed form a suctorial 

 tube like the proboscis of a butterfly, but of course incapable of 

 being rolled up" (Fertilisation, etc., p. 33, note). 



In the southeastern part of Wisconsin Nemognatha seems 

 to be represented by one species only, A^. vittigcra Lee., and 



