36 [February, 



I was uuable to carry these insects beyond their second instar, 

 and can only speak of the rest of the life-history from examples found 

 at other times. They persistently refused to have anything to do with 

 the furze with which they were kept supplied, and this is in accord 

 with the experience of the Rev. W. F. Johnson, who, speaking of 

 somewhat older larvae, says : " These larvae were very badly behaved 

 in captivity, for all that I took, except one, preferred to die rather 

 than proceed to the perfect state, thovigh I gave them every comfort, 

 not to say luxury." I am inclined to think that a change of diet was 

 needed in this second stage, and that, while the insects in their first 

 instar readily fed on furze-juice, they may have needed afterwards the 

 stimulus of an animal diet. For although this species is almost con- 

 fined to furze-bushes, it by no means follows that the plant constitutes 

 its food throughout life, especially when we remember how thickly 

 populated furze-bushes always are with insect and arachnid life of all 

 sorts, much of which might quite easily be mastered by Piezodorvf< 

 larvae in any of their stages. 



There are in all five larval iustars, and the changes that take 

 place concurrently with the growth of the insect consist chiefly in 

 modifications of the thoracic segments. In the third instar, the 

 middle of the hind margin of the mesonotum is slightly extended 

 backwards, so that the margin becomes gently sinuate, and this seg- 

 ment begins dorsally to overlap the metanotum slightly in the centre. 

 This sinuation is still more pronounced in the fourth instar, by the 

 increase in the length of the mesonotum in the centre and at the 

 lateral margins, so that still less of the metanotum remains visible. 

 At the same time the lateral margins of both pro- and mesonotum 

 become narrowly ochraceous. In the fifth and last larval instar, the 

 wing-pads are fully developed, the mesonotum projecting in the centre 

 in the form of a large triangle (the rudimentary scutelhun), and at 

 each side as a large flat disc rounded outwardly and truncate behind, 

 representing the hemielytra of the adult. Beneath this, and forming 

 a continuation of the metanotum, appears a corresponding disc repre- 

 senting the wings : the metanotum itself also is by this time tri- 

 angularly produced in the centre. The only other changes are that 

 hairs appear on the inner margin of the tibiae, which become longei' 

 at each ecdysis ; the basal tarsal joint also becomes very hirsute 

 beneath, and the terminal one less so; the antennae also develop hairs. 

 The puncturation of the fore-parts becomes more rugose as growth 

 proceeds. The claws in the last instar are appendiculate and very 



