of the Oil Beetle, Meloé. 353 
of the thorax with the abdomen, the articulations of the wings, and of the head 
with the thorax, &c., have led me now to a different opinion. The entire 
mouth seems quite untitted to take the food that is stored up for the young 
bee, and it differs entirely from that of the bee itself. The mandibles are not 
short and broad organs, adapted for bruising the pollen, but are thin, fal- 
cated, sharp-pointed structures, admirably formed for piercing and cutting 
delicate tissues. A like structure of the mandible exists in the larva of Lytta, 
and also in that of Sitaris. In the larva Meloé the mandible is very slender, 
acute, and three-jointed (fig.8), as in the inferior class Myriapoda, and nearly 
resembles that of Cermatia and Lithobius, most distinctly carnivorous genera, 
in which the part retains its original pedal form. But in Sitaris, as appears 
from the delineation given by Mr. Westwood, the mandible is not only acute 
and falcated, but is also toothed on its inner margin. Sitaris, like Meloé, we 
have seen is parasitic in the nests of Anthophora. Now this form of mandible 
rarely or ever exists except in carnivorous or parasitic insects, as in the truly 
carnivorous larvee of Dytiscus, Lampyris, Staphylinus, Coccinella, Sialis, Li- 
bellula, and other predaceous genera. On the other hand, this form of man- 
dible is never found in the true vegetable-feeding insects, or in their larvæ. 
In these the mandible is usually obtuse, and fitted for crushing and bruising ; 
sometimes it is pointed at its apex and obtusely denticulated, but always it is 
short, broad, and very strong at its base. This, as we shall hereafter find, is 
the structure of the mandible in the perfect Meloë (fig. 9), which feeds entirely 
furnished with a pair of short articulated styles, and the sides of the abdomen, head and thorax with 
long hairs. : 
= the 25th of February two of these specimens had assumed the imago state, and the third was 
then in the act of doing so, and was throwing off its tegument. They were at first perfectly white 
delicate, and unable to crawl. The antennz, thorax and parts of the mouth quickly assumed a fer- 
ruginous hue, but the elytra and body continued white for two or three days. The strongest of the 
two specimens which had changed was greatly inconvenienced by exposure to light, and attempted to 
creep up the sides of the glass and escape from its influence, but was as yet too weak to do so 
The whole of the specimens remained in the burrows they had excavated in the dry P until 
the 8th of March, when they came forth, and proved to be a species of the family Engide, ies 
It is worthy of remark, that the circumstance of these larvæ feeding on the rejectamenta of the 
young bee, voided at its change, invalidates a statement made by Mr. Westwood 
i with regard to j 
of this group, that they “ never attack either living or dead animal matter!.” =. Insects 
* Introduction to the Modern Classification of Insects, vol. i. p. 144. 
