so fApriU 



NOTES ON THE LIFE-HISTORY 

 OP RHIZOPHAGUS PARALLEL0C0LLI8 Gtll. 



BY K. G. BLAIE, B.SC, F.E.S. 



(Publislied by permission of the Trustees of the British Museum.) 



Sometimes called the " Grave-yard Beetle," S. jyaraUelocolIis has 

 long been known as a frequenter of grave-yards and cemeteries, where it 

 occasionally abounds ; otherwise it is found, though rarely, like most of 

 its congeners, under bai*k or in fungi. Its life-history, and consequently 

 the reason for this peculiar partiality, was unknown until in the course 

 of some exhumations in the cemetery at Iviy, France, during the winter 

 of 1886-87, the beetle and its larva were found in numbers on some of 

 the bodies exhumed. M. Megnin*, who was investigating the entomo- 

 logy of these graves, noted that the beetles were only present on bodies 

 that had been buried for two years, and always in the company of the 

 dipteron Fhora aterrima, the latter in very large numbers. He also 

 remarked that while the Hhizophagns was usually found upon the fatter 

 portions of the corpse, the Phora larvae were more abundant on the 

 leaner portions. He supposed that corpses of more recent date than two 

 years had not reached the right state of putrefaction for the require- 

 ments of the beetle, and that corpses of three years and upwards had 

 passed beyond this state ; hence he concluded that the presence of 

 lEiliizopTiagus on an exhumed corpse was evidence that it had been buried 

 for about two 3'ears. 



About the same time that these observations were made a larva 

 supposed to be that of H. paraUelocoUis was described by Eey (Ann. 

 Soc. Linn. Lyon, 1S87, p. 176, pi. i, fig. 34). It was found in the earth, 

 having no association with graves, and apparently at shallow depth, and 

 is said to live, with the perfect insect, amongst old roots and pieces of 

 wood attacked by various other insects. This description, however, does 

 not tally with larvae recently found with the perfect beetle upon an 

 exhumed corpse, and is either inaccurate, or, more probably, applies to 

 the larva of another species of Wiizo'pliacius. Another descrij^tion and 

 figure given by Megnin in the work referred to are unfortunately too 

 lacking in detail to be definitely recognisable. 



Both beetles and larvae have recently been referred to the Natural 

 History Museum by Dr. B. H. Spilsbury for identification. Again they 

 were in the company of the larvae of a Phorid, in this case P. vitri- 



* p. Megnin, ";La Faune des Cadavrt-s," 1?94. See also notices in Ent. Mo. Mag. vol. xxiv, 

 1SS8, p. 276; ibid. (2) iviii, 1907, i). ii. 



