8 LUCANID^ AND PASSALID^. 



them close together, ruii in all directions in the wood, not 

 under the bark, and are filled with gnawed wood. In this 

 the female lays her eggs in a heap. The eggs are ohve-green 

 in the small species, blackish-green in the larger ones, almost 

 spherical, with a rather hard elastic shell. The egg does not 

 increase in size after it is laid. At the end of the egg-stage, 

 the duration of which I could not judge, the shell splits from 

 one end to the other, gajjes wide open, like the two husks of 

 a hempseed, and from it crawls the white larva, of which the 

 tips of the mandibles, the tarsi, and tlie spiracles and stiff 

 bristles on the back are yellow. During this movement it 

 increases considerably in size ; for instance the larva of 

 Phoroiicvus rusticus Perch., emerging from an egg 5-5 mm. 

 long, was 13-5 mm. long and 3-25 mm. broad. The adults 

 remain with the eggs and young larvae mitil all the eggs are 

 hatched. Then new burrows are started and, the paionts in 

 front and their brood behind, the whole comjjany advance, 

 chirping all the time . . . The sound produced by the stridu- 

 lating ajjparatus is loud and penetrating. The beetles in a 

 fallen log can be heard before they are seen. In a sjjecimen 

 found late at night, which in the absence of any better vessel, 

 I enclosed in a china receptacle on the washstand, the noise 

 was so loud that I could not sleep until I had removed it 

 from the room. The beetles chirp whether their brood is 

 with them or not ; but that they commmiicate in tliis way 

 with their brood I satisfied myself when I once found a log 

 contaming Rutelid larvae and pupse as well as Passalidae, old 

 and young. As the former were of more interest to me, 

 I put the latter aside about half a yard from the log. During 

 my search for the Rutelidae, I heard the continuous chirjiing 

 of the PassaUds. When I had thoroughl}^ searched the log 

 and, before deimrting, turned over a large jDiece of wood lying 

 near, I found beneath it the parent beetles and four larva. 

 Two others were making for the same shelter over fragments 

 of wood and other obstacles ... 



The chirj^ing of the larva? is not so loud as that of the 

 beetle, but distinctly audible, especially that of the larger 

 species. The larva is quite active and is even able to climb 

 up rough surfaces and the wire gauze of a breeding- cage. 

 I have never observed that, even when of different species, 

 they bite one another, nor did 1 ever observe the moulting 

 jirocess. The entire devel<)])ment occupies barely a year, even 

 in the large species- — in Paxilloides there are two generations 

 in a year. For i)upation the larva needs no cocoon, the pupa 

 usuall}^ ly"^g ^^^^ ^^ ^^p burrow, the loose woody material 

 merely drawn a httle towards its sides and occasionally lightly 

 cemented together to form a frail cocoon. Tlie change from 

 larva to jmpa and from ])upa to beetle takes about 3 weeks, so 



