374 bulletin: museum of comparative zoology. 



muscles lie in such positions that their contraction depresses the folds on 

 the metaepisterni into which ridges on the elytra catch when these are 

 closed. This depression of the folds releases the elytra, or, if these are 

 open, it allows them to be closed. 



2. Phagocytosis of the muscles of Coleoptera does not exist. No 

 " Kornchenkugeln " have been found, though leucocytes containing 

 what are evidently foreign bodies have been found in Thymalus. These 

 inclusions are possibly to be explained as intracellular parasites. 



