46 I-'"'}'' 



LIFE HISTORY OF MELIOETHES* 

 BY ELEAXOR A. ORMEEOD. 



In the spring of 1872, 1 waa requested by my friend Mr. Andrew 

 Murray to make some observations on tlie development of the genus 

 3IeUgcthes, for which my residenee in the country and suflicieut leisure 

 seemed to give me some advantages. 



Mr. Murray had already (Trans. Linn. Soc.) monographed a por- 

 tion of the family of Nitidulidce to which Meligethes belongs, and had 

 devoted considerable study to that genus itself, with a view to the 

 continuance of his monograph. In the meantime, Herr Edmund 

 Reitter of Paskau had, for the first time, published (Brunu : 1871) a 

 monograph of the European species of the genus, describing as many 

 as 99 (of which 76 had been recognised by various previous authors), 

 and to which nearly a score more have been added subsequently by 

 Herr E-eitter and M. Ch. Brisout. As the characters of such a large 

 number of species in a genus of singularly uniform aspect are neces- 

 sarily very minute, Mr. Murray was anxious to find what amount of 

 individual variation (if any) took place in the broods of any one of 

 them, and so asked me to assist him in ascertaining this point. 



In this respect, how^ever, my observations were not productive of 

 any result, but, in another pqint of view, they may perhaps be of 

 interest to entomologists ; for it is unnecessary to say that I could not 

 make the researches required of me w'ithout rearing and breeding the 

 insects, and, consequently, I was compelled to study their whole life 

 history from the egg to their perfect development. 8o far as I know, 

 their early history has never previously been described in this country; 

 the larva and pupa are known, but beyond that I believe their life 

 history is a blank, which I shall endeavour to suppl}^ by the following 

 notes, t 



The species which I studied were the large M. rufipes and the 

 common green M. ceneus and viridescens ; but, as the two latter of 

 these vary considerably in colour, and hundreds of them passed under 

 review, it was impossible to ascertain (whilst watching their habits in 

 a state of liberty) whether some specimens of the viridescens Avcre 

 not mixed with the aeneiis, and I have therefore simply designated both 

 throughout as " the green Meligethes,'' though, as far as careful ob- 

 servation went, they were entirely ceneus. 



* Read by Andrew Murray, Esq., F.L.S., at the Meeting of the Kensington Entomological 

 Society in May, 1874. 



t Since the .ihove was in type, I .am indebted to Mr. Rye for drawing my attention to the 

 publications of Krnst Hccger (Sitzungsber. Akad. Wissen.«ch. Wien, xiv, Ueft ?, 1854, pp. 278-281, 

 pi. iii, figs. 1-10), G. Kiiiistlor (Die uneeren Kulturi'flanzen scliUdliclien Insecten, &c., 1871, 

 pp. 46 and 47), and J. H. Kaltenb.ich (Die Planzenfeiiide, <tc., 1872), as recent continental writers 

 on the- life-history of Meligethes o;iieu),—E. A. O. • 



