»* 
308 Mr. Newport on the Natural History 
This larva is extremely active in all its movements. It runs with great 
celerity, and then uses only its six true legs. But it can also climb up a 
nearly smooth and vertical surface, as for instance on glass, or can walk in 
a reversed position. In these movements it makes use of its anal prolegs. 
When walking in a reversed position it invariably uses these parts, which are 
employed in exactly the same way as by the Julide and the larvae of other 
insects. The body is moved along in the manner of the Geometridous cater- 
pillars; the segments of the abdomen are first shortened and moved forward 
as far as possible, the prolegs are then attached, and the whole body is pro- 
jected onwards by a measured step, or as it were a leap. 
Such is the larva of Meloé immediately after it has left the egg. It then 
measures about one-twelfth of an inch in length. Thus my own observations, 
in so far as they relate to the evolution of this larva from the egg of Meloé, 
entirely agree with those originally made by Goedart*, and by DeGeerT, both 
of whom obtained this little hexapod from eggs deposited by Meloé, and both 
have given very precise details of the fact. Similar observations have since 
been made by Mr. E. Doubleday}, Saint Fargeau and Serville$, Brandt and 
Erichson ||, and still more recently by the Rev. L, Jenyns] ; and yet in face of 
the direct statements of all these authorities, an acute entomologist of the pre- 
sent day, Mr. Westwood **, conceives himself * warranted” in coming to the 
conclusion, that this hexapod “ cannot be the larva of Meloé.” In support of 
this conclusion Mr. Westwood quotes some remarks on Meloé by Geoffroy t1. 
But Geoffroy’s remarks, respecting the larva of Meloé, are incorrect. They 
appear to have been made on the larva of Timarcha tenebricosa, which he seems 
to have mistaken for that of Meloe. Geoffroy says of the full-grown larva of 
Meloé, that it * ressemble beaucoup à l'animal parfait. Elle est de méme cou- 
leur, grosse, lourde, n'ayant que la téte écailleuse et tout le reste du corps mol. 
On la trouve enfoncée dans la terre, où elle fait sa métamorphose.” This is 
totally incorrect, in so far as it refers to Meloë, but is most accurate as regards 
the larva of Timarcha. Yet not only is this insisted on by Mr. Westwood, in 
cie sk : 
Mém. tome ii. p. 181. T Mémoires, tome v. p. 8. 1 Entom. Mag.-vol. ii. p. 453. 
$ Encyclop. vol. x, | Nova Acta Acad. Nat. Curios. vol. xvi. 
«| Westwood's Introd. Mod. Classification of Insects, vol. i. p. 302. 
"T Ye. cit: 
Tf Hist. Nat. Ins. tome i. p. 377. 
