Hypermetamorphosis 



beetles for some time resume the preceding 

 form, almost without modification. 



The nymph comes next. It presents no 

 peculiarities. The only nymph that I have 

 reared attained the perfect insect state at the 

 end of September. Under ordinary condi- 

 tions would the adult Oil-beetle have emerged 

 from her cell at this period? I do not think 

 so, since the pairing and egg-laying do not 

 take place until the beginning of spring. She 

 would no doubt have spent the autumn and 

 the winter in the Anthophora's dwelling, 

 only leaving it in the spring following. It 

 is even probable that, as a rule, the develop- 

 ment is even slower and that the Oil-beetles, 

 like the Sitares, for the most part spend the 

 cold season in the pseudochrysalid state, a 

 state well-adapted to the winter torpor, and 

 do not achieve their numerous forms until 

 the return of the warm weather. 



The Sitares and Meloes belong to the 

 same family, that of the Meloidae.^ Their 

 strange transformations must probably ex- 

 tend throughout the group; indeed, I had the 

 good fortune to discover a third example, 

 which I have not hitherto been able to study 



1 Later classifiers place both in the family of the Can- 

 tharidae. — Translator's Note. 

 135 



