9QQ fNoTember, 



the 14th, when the eyes of the inmate were very evident at one end. At the 

 same time I was i-ather piizzled to account for the presence of a few dead water- 

 beetle larvae in the box ; then I found a live one, and discovered that they were 

 hatching from these dipterous puparia! By next morning all the eggs had 

 hatched and the egg-shells disappeared, except for a small area where they were 

 affixed to the rotten wood ; and the young larvae were ci'awling about in the 

 box. Their limbs were not yet free, but their long legs, folded down along the 

 ventral surface, very much in the position they assiinie in the jiupa, reach well 

 to the last segment of the body. Their manner of progression is very peculiar : 

 pressing the front of the head on to the svirface on which they are lying, an 

 operation in which they do not seem to be able to make use of their jaws, they 

 as it were hump their shoulders violently, thus dragging the body forward ; on 

 too smooth or too dry a surface, which gives no grip for the head, and no support 

 to steady the dragging body, they twist and sqviirm helplessly. 



When dropped into water their legs appear to come unglued, and they at 

 once start to swim about with their peculiarly gracefiil action. It was not 

 until this stage that I recognised their identity. They are white and semi- 

 transparent, with the alimentary canal yet more transparent ; the air-trunk 

 along each side of the body appears black, and these, with the black latei'al 

 fringes of the tail, show up in strong contrast with the pale body. 



The eggs, which are of a pale yellow colour, are very large for the size of 

 the beetle, and sausage-shaped, but unfortunately I omitted to record the 

 measurements. They Avere laid partly irregularly, partly in fairly regular rows 

 side by side, though not closely packed, along the edges of a oiiink in the rotten 

 stump ; also, I think, in the substance of the soft rotten wood. There were a 

 large number of them, a hundred or so I should imagine, though I only took a 

 few to see what they would produce. When found they were certainly well 

 away from water, and though it was evident that the stump had been standing 

 in water, I should say that the eggs had been deposited above water-level. 

 The behaviour of the newly hatched larvae, too, is suggestive of their having 

 to make their way to water on emergence — K. G-. Blair, British Museum (Nat. 

 History), Cromwell Road, S.W. : August, 1916. 



Diyioderus minutus F. at Penarth. — About a year ago, whilst stowing away 

 the bamboos on which runner beans had been growing, I noticed some of them 

 had been attacked by a wood-boring insect, and on splitting them found one 

 more or less complete, and the fragments of several, specimens of a beetle, 

 which I sent to Mr. J. E. le B. Tomlin with others, for naming. He advises me 

 that Mr. C. J. Gahan has kindly identified it as Dinoderus minutus F. These 

 bamboos had been in iise as bean sticks for at least three years, and I had not 

 previously noticed any signs of attack. — H. M. Hallett, 64, Westbourne Eoad, 

 Penarth : September 30th, 1916. 



A food-plant of Sitones griseus F. — Mr. W. E. Shar^/s observations on the 

 food-plant of this beetle in Ent. Mo. Mag., LII, pp. 133-134, and Mr. G. C. 

 Champion's footnote thereto, induced me to ti'y and ascertain Avhat it fed on at 



