of the Oil Beetle, Meloé. 309 
opposition to the views of three of the most distinguished naturalists, Latreille, 
Erichson and Brandt, but, entirely misunderstanding a communication made 
to him by myself respecting the full-grown larva, Mr. Westwood has stated 
that I have confirmed to him the observation of Geoffroy,—a statement that is 
quite erroneous. The full-grown larva, as I shall show, is utterly dissimilar 
to the perfect insect; it has not the scaly head, and it never acquires a black 
or dark colour, but is always, like the young larva, of a yellow or light 
orange. The dissimilarity of appearance of the adult larva and imago is as 
great as that of the full-grown larva and the very young. 
It must be acknowledged however, that the very young insect is in every 
respect calculated to mislead those who have not watched its development 
from the egg. The structure of its organs of manducation, its prehensile tarsi, 
and its great activity of body, all seem to point it out as especially fitted, at 
this stage of its existence, for some peculiar mode of life, very different from 
that of its parent,—namely, a life of precarious parasitism. 
3. HABITS or THE Larva. 
The extreme interest attached to this inquiry has led me to endeavour to 
ascertain something respecting the habits of this insect. The eggs obtained 
in my earliest observations in April 1830 were hatched, as I have already 
stated, on the 25th of May. I saw most of the larvae leave the egg as early 
as five o'clock in the morning. "They were confined in the tin box for several 
days, during which time, the light being entirely excluded from them, they 
remained quiet, and seemed but little disposed to escape. But after remain- 
ing in confinement for ten or eleven days, during which the weather had 
become much warmer, many of them crept out from beneath the lid of the 
box and moved about with rapidity, agitating their palpi as they ran, as if in 
search of food. Within a day or two longer nearly the whole of them had 
removed from the interior of the box, and were distributed thickly over its 
exterior, and also on the sill of the window, on the side most exposed to the 
light. I then secured from three to four hundred of them in a phial, into 
which I put several living Curculiones, and a single specimen of Malachius 
bipustulatus. The Curculios remained in the phial undisturbed, but the young 
Meloés instantly attached themselves in such numbers to the Malachius as 
282 
