of the Oil Beetle, Melo. 327 
Dr. Gebler states, reside in the ground, probably in the nests of some Hy- 
menoptera. M. Gené* has shown that the eggs and larvze of Apalus bimacu- 
latus closely resemble those of Meloé, and that they are precisely similar in form 
and habit to the so-called Triungulinus Andrenetarum of Dufour. M. Gené 
however was unable to trace the growth of these larvae, probably from causes 
similar to those which have hitherto prevented our tracing the early stages of 
growth in Mebë. The larva of Sitaris also, according to the figure given by 
Mr. Westwood f, resembles that of Meloë in some of its characters, and appa- 
rently also in its kind of parasitism. MM. Audouin and Pecchioli f found the 
eggs of Sitaris Solieri, with the larvae within them almost ready to burst 
their envelopes, deposited in great abundance, in a white glutinous material, 
on the flowers of the rosemary, in the neighbourhood of Pisa ; besides a great 
number of larvee on the ground, which had recently come forth, but which they 
were unable to follow through their changes. "The eggs closely resembled 
those of Sitaris humeralis, which insect M. Audouin had seen deposit her ova, 
_and from which ova the larvae delineated by the naturalist above-mentioned. 
were obtained. M. Audouin also had found the perfect insect in the nest of 
an Anthophora. Sitaris humeralis seems to have been taken in this country 
formerly by Mr. Kirby, as there are three specimens in the Kirbian collection. 
A few years since it was found by the Rev. Mr. Badger$ in some abundance 
on a wall at Chelsea in the month of September. In that month also, in 1841, 
it was taken by Mr. S. Stevens |, on the wall of his garden at Hammersmith ; 
and it was at that period of the year that M. Pecchioli€| found both sexes of 
Sitaris Solieri at Pisa, in coitu, in great abundance on the wild rosemarv. 
M. Pecchioli met with this species at two distant periods, and in different 
localities, but always on the same kind of plant. M. Rambuhr** also found 
many specimens of Sitaris in the cells of Hymenoptera, in dry ground, exposed 
to a northern rather than to a southern aspect. From these facts it appears cer- 
* Westwood's Introduction, vol. i. p. 299. 
t Ibid, p. 294. fig. 34. No. 4, 5. 
i Annales de la Soc. Entomologique de France, Dec. 4, 1839, p. xlvii. tome viii. 
$ Westwood's Introduction, vol. i. p. 298. 
| Minute-Book Entom, Soc. Lond., Sept. 5, 1841. 
€| Loc. cit. p. xlvii. ** Ibid. 
