708 RECOED OF CURRENT RESEARCHES RELATING TO 



the rudiment of the sucker, the ca\nty in which is formed by a process 

 of invagination ; the apparatus is pu'-ely ectodermal in origin. 



The upper part of the body, or that which, in the larva, contains 

 the oral groove is, at first, relatively very small ; increasing in length 

 later on, it becomes connected with the endoderm and comes into 

 contact with the fore-gut ; still later the portion of the endoderm 

 which lies superiorly to the fore-gut separates from the rest of the 

 endoderm, and becomes fused with the gut, and now forms a collection 

 of cells which becomes closely applied to the oral grove. The author 

 refrains from entering at present into a full discussion of theoretical 

 considerations. 



Arthropoda. 



Metamorphoses of the Blister Beetle {Lytta veslcatoria Fab.).* 

 — M. J. Lichtenstein has succeeded at last in following the complete 

 development of the blister-beetle from the egg to the perfect insect, 

 which had already been done for Meloe, f Sitaris, | and Epicanta,% 

 but had never been accomplished with the blister-beetles. The 

 author reserving to himself the publication of his entire memoir in 

 the special entomological journals, communicates a resume of his work 

 to the French Academy. 



He placed females which had coj)ulated towards the end of May 

 and the beginning of June, under a bell-glass with some earth, iu 

 which the female laid its rather elongated, whitish, and trail spax*ent 

 eggs. In a fortnight the larva long known imder the name of 

 Triungulinus, issued from the eggs. It was scaly, and dark brown, 

 with the meso- and metathorax and the first abdominal segment white. 

 It had very acute jaws, black j)rominent eyes, and two long caudal 

 seta3. 



The author, after several fruitless trials, fed the larva on the 

 stomachs of honey bees, and then on the eggs and young larvse of 

 bees — Osmia and Ceratina chalcites. Honey must be added to the 

 eggs or young larvae, as animal food is only fitted for this first larval 

 form, and the little TriimguUnus has an instinctive knowledge that it 

 must not touch the eggs or larvae unless there is enough honey to feed 

 the form which is to follow it. 



On the fifth to the sixth day it changed its skin, lost its caudal 

 setae and brown colour, and became a small white hexapod worm ; its 

 sharp jaws became obtuse, its eyes less brilliant, and it left the eggs 

 and young larvas and ate honey. Five days later it again changed its 

 skin, it jaws became still broader, and its eyes fui-ther obliterated. 



Five days later there was a fresh moult. The eyes now dis- 

 appeared entirely, the feet and jaws became brown and horny at the 

 extremity, the insect presenting the aj^pearance of a small larva of a 

 Scarahceus, and it is seen that it is destined to burrow in the earth. 



* ' Comptes Eendus,' Ixxxviii. (1879) p. 1089. 



t Newport, "On the Natural History of the Oil Beetle (Meloe)," in 'Trans. 

 Linn. Soc. Lond ,' 1861. 



X Fabre, "On Sitaris humeralis," in 'Ann. Sc. Nat.,' 1857; Valery-Mayet, 

 " On Sitaris collatis" in 'Ann. Soc. Entom.,' 1875. 



§ Riley, in ' Trans. Ac. Sci. St. Louis,' 1877. 



