The Primary Larva of the Oil-Beetles 



there, as the Sitares do; and I should know 

 nothing of the details of the egg-laying if 

 Godart,^ de Geer ^ and, above all, Newport 

 had not informed us that the Oil-beetles lay 

 their eggs in the earth. According to the 

 last-named author, the various Oil-beetles 

 whom he had the opportunity of observing 

 dig, among the roots of a clump of grass, in 

 a dry soil exposed to the sun, a hole a couple 

 of inches deep which they carefully fill up 

 after laying their eggs there in a heap. This 

 laying is repeated three or four times over, 

 at intervals of a few days during the same 

 season. For each batch of eggs the female 

 digs a special hole, which she does not fail 

 to fill up afterwards. This takes place in 

 April and May. 



The number of eggs laid in a single batch 

 is really prodigious. In the first batch, 

 which, it is true, is the most prolific of all, 

 Meloe proscarabaus, according to New- 

 port's calculations, produces the astonishing 

 number of 4,218 eggs, which is double the 

 number of eggs laid by a Sitaris. And what 



1 Jean Baptiste Godart (1775-1823), the principal editor 

 of L'Histoire naturelle des lepidopteres de France. — 

 Translator's Note. 



2 Baron Karl de Geer (1720-1778), the Swedish ento- 

 mologist, author of Memoires pour servir a Vhistoire des 

 insectes (1752-1778). — Translator's Note. 



87 



