1878. 117 



night afterwards, and the little hiongidina -were left without any food until the 9th 

 of July. On that day I had the luck to find in briars some cells of Ceratina chalcites, 

 with honey and eggs or small larvaj of that melliferous bee over it. I presented the 

 contents of the cells just as they were to my iriongulina. They at once attacked, all 

 four (each separately in a glass tvibe), first the larva or the egg of the Ceratina, and 

 seemed to enjoy very much that animal feeding. Five days afterwards the triongulina 

 changed their skin and made their appearance as soft white larvae, without caudal 

 setse and their pointed mandibles changed to broader form, fit for eating honey ; 

 they left from that very moment the dead larvae of the bee and resorted to the 

 honey ; another change of skin takes place five days after, and the head of the lai'va 

 increases considerably while the eyes become obsolete. After five days more the 

 larva, which begins to look very much like that of Melolontha (of small size of 

 course), burrows in the earth and prepares a Uttle cell, where it changes, in another 

 fire days, to a chrysalis or nymph, of the form of a Meloe pseudo-nymph. It becomes 

 gradually of a chestnut colour, and . . . ...... 



I am waiting to see what will become of it, as it is yet now without any change 

 since the 9th July. 



I note that the chrysalis extrudes some little drops of a liquid which I cannot 

 examine, as the pupa is in a glass tube, and I will not disturb it. I do not know 

 if it is normal or the effect of some illness. — -J. Lichtenstein, Montpellier : 

 August, 1878. 



/ On the stridulation of some Hemiptcra, Bymenopiera, and Coleoptera. — The species 

 of stridulating Hemiptera (Reduviidce) that I have taken this summer in Italy, all 

 performed similarly by placing the termination of their short and thick rostrum in a 

 lenticular, striated groove, extending from the front edge of the presternum to the 

 insertion of the first pair of legs, and then rubbing this angulate point backwards 

 and forwards by a nodding motion of the head from its prothoracic articulation;* 

 the length and celerity of the movement perceptibly regulating the fulness and 

 pitch of the notes, while the organic structures and frictional surfaces determined 

 the gamut. 



The first stridulator, the pupal form of Reduvius personatus ?, was taken, be- 

 grimed with particles of dust, within the folds of a muslin window blind at Ana 

 Capri ; the second, Oncocephalus notatus, Ramb., was captured in a railway carriage 

 near Foggia : both in the month of May. During captivity, these would perform 

 somewhat reluctantly on seizure : the notes of the first had the musical timbre of 

 minute longicorn Coleoptera {Leptura, Fabr., and other anthophilous genera) ; those 

 of the latter had a more rustling sound, which caused me repeatedly to think they 

 arose from my having inadvertently crumpled the elytra. The third species, Harpactor 

 iracundus. Scop., taken on the banks of the Po at 6 a.m. one June morning, when 

 engaged in sucking the juices of a Forficula, was a more sturdy performer, with a 

 sharp, creaking stridulation. And, although if retained for more than a second in 

 the hand, its music would often subside to a tone scarcely perceptible by the human 

 ear, yet, if the insect was then allowed to slip just a little through the fingers (this 

 action apparently conferring some sensation akin to pleasure at release) the rostrum 



* As already noticed in Cm-anus subaplerus and Reduvius personatus : vide Mitth. schw. ent. 

 Ges., iv, ISi).— Eds. 



