Caitatlidti Jrtt0inal(i0bt. 



Vol. XXVIII. • LONDON, FEBRUARY, 1896. 



No. 2. 



THE COLEOPTERA OF CANADA. 



BY H. F. WICKHAM, IOWA CITY, IOWA. 



XIV. The Meloid^ of Ontario and Quebec. 

 The Canadian species of Meloidae are few in number, but offer con- 

 siderable difficulty to the student, chiefly from the fact that some of them 

 are extremely variable in colour and size, while in the genus Meloe we 

 meet with a group in which the specific characters have never been 

 accurately determined. The family is characterized by the vesicant or 

 blistering properties of its members (the " Spanish fly " being perhaps the 

 best known in this connection), and, under the name of cantharides, 

 blister-beetles are to be found in every drug store. To the agriculturist 

 they are often a pest, Macrobasis nnicolor often doing considerable dam- 

 age to potatoes. The naturalist finds in the curious modifications of the 

 antennae of the males, a theme worthy of his careful study. 



The larval habits of but few species have been worked 

 out, and these vary somewhat among themselves. The 

 account of the transformations of some European species 

 of Meloe has been so often copied in entomological text 

 books that it seems scarcely necessary to reproduce it here. 

 It may be enough to note that the larvae are hatched as 

 minute six-footed active creatures, which find their way on 

 to the bodies of bees, and are carried in this way into the 

 nests. Here they feed on the provisions and larvse of the 

 bees, changing their form several times before appearing as 

 pupae. 



Technically, the family characters may be summed up 

 as follows : — 



Fig. I — Larva of 

 Blistering Beetle. 



Hind tarsi 4-jointed, the others 5-jointed; anterior coxal cavities open 

 behind. Head strongly narrowed at base into a small neck, front vertical; 

 lateral suture of prothorax entirely obliterated. The base of the prothorax 

 is narrower than that of the elytra, the hind coxae are large and promi- 



