1845.] Linnean Society. 269 



which he has procured at Richborough near Sandwich in Kent. The 

 first two of these species come forth about the middle of March, and 

 the latter from ten days to a fortnight later in the season. They 

 feed chiefly on the buttercup (Ranunculus acris), and one species, 

 M. cicatricosus, also on the dandelion. 



When the Meloes first appear they are feeble, and have the body 

 very small and contracted. In the course of a few days they become 

 more active and are increased in size. They expose themeelves much 

 to the sun, and pair in the middle and warmest part of the day. On 

 the 8th of April 1830, the author first observed a female preparing 

 to deposit her eggs, and he has since had numerous opportunities of 

 observing her thus occupied. She excavates a burrow, to the depth 

 of about two inches, beneath the roots of grass in a dry soil exposed 

 to the sun, usually at the side of a foot-path. Into this burrow she 

 passes her body backwards, and having deposited a large packet of 

 yellow-coloured cylindrical eggs, she closes up the burrow with 

 earth and begins again to feed. Each female deposits eggs from 

 three to four times during the season, at intervals of from one to 

 two or three weeks. The greatest number are deposited at the first 

 laying, and fewer at each succeeding laying. In order to ascertain 

 the number deposited at the first laying by Melo'e proscarubceus, 

 Mr. Newport removed the ovaries from a specimen that had recently 

 been impregnated, and having divided one ovary into pieces counted 

 the number of eggs in each under the microscope, and found that 

 one ovary contained 2109 eggs ready for deposition ; so that the two 

 ovaries contained the astonishing number of 4218 mature eggs, be- 

 sides an almost equal number in the course of formation. 



The structure of the e^g, the membranes of the shell and embryo, 

 the manner in which the embryo is liberated from the egg, the length 

 of time it has remained in the egg state, and the circumstances which 

 affect its development are then minutely detailed ; as well as the 

 changes produced in the instinct of the unimpregnated female. 



The lar^'aof Melo'e, as it comes from the egg, is a yellow, slender, 

 active little hexapod, scarcely one-twelfth of an inch in length. It at- 

 taches itself with great readiness to bees and flies, and clings so se- 

 curely to them, that the insects are not able to remove it from their 

 bodies, as was noticed in several experiments. These facts confirm 

 the observations of Goedart and DeGeer, who first bred the larva 

 from eggs deposited by Melo'e. 



The structure of the larva is next described, and compared with 

 that of the Pedicuhs apis of Linnaeus, as found on Hymenopterous 

 insects, and the two are shown to be identical in every particular. 



No. XXVIII. — Proceedings of the Linnean Society. 



