140 CBTONIIN.I. 



Various accounts have been published by Continental entomo- 

 logists of the habits o£ this very common and widely-distributed 

 insect, which in Europe is frequently confused with the common 

 -Rose-beetle (Cetonia aurata, L.), which it considerably resembles. 

 In its adult form it feeds voraciously upon the juices of ripe fruit 

 and other sweet liquids, and M. Pabre has watched them absorbing 

 for a fortnight without intermission the juice of fruit supplied to 

 them. This is during the summer and autumn following their 

 emergence. The succeeding winter is passed (in Europe) iu 

 quiescence below the surface of the ground, and ovipositiou does 

 not take place until the following year. The female deposits her 

 eggs in accumulations of decaying leaves or other vegetable matter, 

 or by preference in nests of the large AVood-Ants (Formica rufa 

 and praUasis), burrowing a short distance below the surface for 

 that purpose. The larvse spend two or three years feeding upon 

 the vegetable substance which they find at hand. Mr. Weaver is 

 repoi'ted, in the Proceedings of tlie Entomological Society, 1851, 

 p. 105, to have stated that he saw large quantities of the ants' 

 eggs devoured by the larvje, but it is probable that this was only 

 due to their being removed from the nest and kept without other 

 suitable food. Larvae of various ages are commonly found together, 

 the youngest according to Wasmaun (Deutsche Eutomologische 

 Zeitschrift, 1887, xxxi, p. 45) generally living in the deeper parts 

 of the nest and those more advanced nearer the surface, where the 

 cocoon is also found. The latter is similar to a pigeon's egg in 

 size and shape, and formed by the agglutination of fragments of 

 the food-material, the interior being coated with matter apparently 

 exuded from the intestine, producing a perfectly smooth and 

 shining surface. The construction of the cocoon appears to 

 be the chief function of the legs, progression being accomplished 

 by the movements of the dorsal segments. After a period of one, 

 two, or three months in the pupal stage the beetle ruptures the 

 cocoon and makes its way above ground. The ants seem to 

 resent the intrusion of the beetle into their nest, but owing to 

 its hard exterior can scarcely injure, although they may hinder, it. 

 The larvje, however, are left undisturbed unless they give some 

 special offence, and appear also to be to some extent protected by 

 the toughness of their skin and tlie stiff bristles with which it is 

 studded. 



This larva is preyed upon by the parasitic wasp, ScoJia hifasciata^ 

 the female of which seeks it out and, having paralysed it by 

 stinging it in the ventral ganglion-mass, places an egg upon it. 

 The issuing grub speedily devours the immobile victim, and having 

 reduced it to an empty skin, forms its cocoon beside it. 



The life-history of many other species of Cetonun.!: is 

 probably similar in the main to that of Proiotia cuprea. 



