PROCEEDINGS OF UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM. 337 



Vol. VII, I¥o. 22. l¥a!!»hin^ton, D. C. Sept. 4, 1884. 



on several occasions found tliis luminous larva in Missouri, usually in 

 cellars, and have in vain endeavored to rear it to the perfect state. 

 The accompanying figure, made some years ago for an article on lumin- 

 ous larvae, not yet published, will serve to indicate its character, and 



Luminous larva: a, dorsal view; b, do., in dark: c, prob- 

 able parent — nat. size ; d, head of larva ; e, leg of same — en- 

 larged (after Riley). 



the beautiful appearance it presents in the dark. "We think Baron 

 Osten-Sacken right in conjecturing this larva to be that oi Melanactes ; 

 yet, when Packard, in his "Guide,'' speak.s of his figure 42G as that of 

 Melanactes without qualification, he conveys a wrong impression, since 

 no one has ever decided the matter positively by breeding. 



" There is another larva occurring in the more northern States, which 

 has very much the same appearance and the same phosphorescent pe- 

 culiarities, but which is seldom half as large as that which you send, 

 and which we figure. Both Mr. E, P. Austin and Mr. B. P. Mann, who 

 have studied this northern form, believe that it belongs to Asaphes, and 

 probably A. mennionius, being led to this conjecture by the i)resence of 

 Melanactes in Xew England."* 



* Prof. C. V. Riley tells me that since writing -what I have here quoted from him 

 his opinion has changed, and he now believes that this larva is not elaterid but 1am- 

 pyrid, belonging probably to Dendrodes. — R. W. S. 



Proc. Nat. Mus. 84 22 



