NOTES ON THE IMMATURE STAGES OF DELTOME- 

 TOPUS RUFIPES MELS. (Coleoptera, Eucnemidee).* 



Edna Mosher. 



Larvae of the family Eucnemidae have been somewhat of a 

 puzzle to entomologists since the first description of a larva 

 of Fornax by Coquerel in 1856. The first American species 

 were described by Osten Sacken, from larvae collected by Dr. 

 Hotn and an unnamed species from his own collection. The 

 larvae are found in dead wood, some of them where it is still 

 very firm, others, including the species under discussion, prefer 

 wood which is more decayed. Although living in the wood, 

 f ey differ very materially from the ordinary type of wood- 

 bt mg 'nsects for they have no powerful mandibles such as 

 these insects are provided with. Instead the head strongly 

 resembles that of the leaf-m.ining larvae without having even as 

 efficient mandibles as they. Schiodte quotes Coquerel as saying 

 that they are "without perceptible organs of the mouth— nay 

 without a buccal orifice." It has been doubted by some authors, 

 including Schiodte, that they were able to make their own 

 burrows and were suspected of living in burrows made by 

 other insects. The same authors also differed as to the food of 

 such larvae, considering their lack of mouthparts, and Schiodte 

 seemed certain that they must feed on xylophagous larvae and 

 pupae, since it was quite evident they could not feed on wood. 

 Some have thought they lived on the sap or "juices of the 

 wood." Little has been added to our knowledge of the larvae 

 or pupae since Osten Sacken's paper was written. Since these 

 larvae seemed to be such an entomological puzzle, I have been 

 much interested in collecting them from time to time in the 

 last five years. Altogether three species have been collected, 

 but only one or two specimens each time, and all my attempts 

 at rearing them have been unsuccessful. Mr. H. G. Crawford, 

 however, found one of these species very abundant at Guelph, 

 Ontario and succeeded in rearing a number of adults. I am 

 greatly indebted to him for placing all of his material at my 

 disposal, and also to Mr. Charles Dury, of Cincinnati, who. 

 identified the species for me as Deltometopus rufipes Mels. 



* Contributions from the Department of Zoology and Entomology, Ohio State.- 

 University, No. 56. 



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