^9 



OS a family from the forms to which they are otherwise akin? My own 

 belief is that this fact is nothing more than their essential family charac- 

 teristic, Avithout which they might have been literally included in the 

 GryplopJiagidce ; and even it will become less remarkable when we take 

 into account that both of the families to which I conceive them to be 

 allied — namely, the Gryptophagidcc, in one direction, and the Myceto- 

 phagidee, in the other — shew a departure from the normal number in the 

 joints of their feet. Thus, in Gryptophagus proper, the males are 

 heteromerous ; whilst in the Mycetophagidce all the tarsi are quadriarti- 

 culate, except the anterior pair in the male sex, which have hut three joints. 

 "What then, under such circumstances, Avould seem more natural, a priori, 

 than that a small family related to them both, and in which the general 

 structure is very similar to that which prevails in them, should have for 

 one of its distinctive peculiarities triarticulated feet ? So that, from 

 whatever point of view we regard the subject, for my own part I cannot 

 but arrive at the same conclusion — that the Latridiidm are rightly placed 

 (where most Coleopterists, indeed, do actually put them) in the vicinity 

 of the GryptophagidcB, towards the end of the Necrophaga. 



OBSERVATIONS ON THE ECONOMY AND MOULTING OF THE LARVA 

 OF MICROPTERYX UNIMACULELLA. 



BY CHAELES HEALT. 



In May, 1861, when I first collected several of these larva, I was much 



struck by the suddenness with which the change from the spotted to 



the spotless state was effected, and sought eagerly in their mines for 



the presence of cast-off skins, but without finding any, although it was 



self-evident that they had moulted ; however, to set the matter at rest, 



to my satisfaction, on the 26th of April, 1863, I collected a quantity of 



the larva and submitted them to a rigorous examination, and herewith 



annex my observations on the economy and moulting of one of the larvae. 



At the date of collection the larva was whitish, almost glassy, sides 



of head black, mouth brownish, the second segment with a broad black 



plate, a black spot on the underside of each of the second, third, fourth, 



fifth and sixth segments, diminishing in size, the larva at that time 



feeding very rapidly ; on the 28th it ceased eating for some hours, and 



remained perfectly still in its mine until the old skin splitting at the 



commencement of the second segment, the laiwa pressed its head against 



the side of its mine, and then, by curving its body, and violently jerking 



itself up and down, drew its body out of the old skin, the operation 



of moulting not occupying five minutes. The larva then lay still, as if 



resting after its exertions, the dorsal vessel becoming visible in the 



