The Glow- Worm and Other Beetles 



future legs and mouth-parts. This shed- 

 ding of the skin, which leaves the body of the 

 pseudochrysaHs uncovered, recalls the mode 

 of transformation observed in the Oil- 

 beetles and is different from that of the 

 Sitares and the Zonites, whose pseudo- 

 chrysalis remains wholly enveloped in the 

 skin of the secondary larva, a sort of bag 

 which is sometimes loose, sometimes tight 

 and always unbroken. 



The mist that surrounded us at the out- 

 set is dispelled. This is indeed a Meloid, 

 a true Meloid, one of the strangest anomalies 

 among the parasites of its tribe. Instead 

 of living on the honey of a Bee, it feeds on 

 the skewerful of Mantes provided by a 

 Tachytes. The North-American naturalists 

 have taught us lately that honey is not always 

 the diet of the Blister-beetles: some Meloidae 

 in the United States devour the packets of 

 eggs laid by the Grasshoppers. This is a 

 legitimate acquisition on their part, not an 

 illegal seizure of the food-stores of others. 

 No one, as far as I am aware, had as yet 

 suspected the true parasitism of a carnivor- 

 ous Meloid. It is nevertheless very remark- 

 able to find in the Blister-beetles, on both 

 sides of the Atlantic, this weakness for the 

 flavour of Locust: one devours her eggs; the 

 IS4 



