100 



appear as active larvae on flowers frequented by bees, and attach 

 themselves to the body of the bees, thus gaining access to the 

 hives, where they assume a maggot- like shape, and feed on 

 honev. While digging for eggs of Caloptenus spretus, Mr. 

 Riley found many pseudo-pupse of blister beetles, and it occurred 

 to him that there might be some connection between the two ; 

 Avhich seemed the more probable since these, and other beetles 

 of the same family, abound in the dry western regions where 

 Acridians are so prolific. Following up this clue, he discovered 

 the early larva or " triungulin" of two species of Epicauta and 

 one or two species of Macrobasis in the eggs of the common 

 destructive locust, and also in those of Caloptenus differ entialis. 

 He has, as yet, com])letely followed the history of only Epicauta- 

 vittata, the eggs of which are laid in masses in the ground. 

 On hatching, the larvge scatter in search of eggs, burrow into 

 the pods, and feed upon the contents ; one larva requiring an 

 entire pod ; if two enter the same pod, only the fittest sur- 

 vives. The young larva, before entering the eggs, has the 

 triungulin form common, so far as is known, to all Meloidae, but 

 after sucking a single egg it undergoes a moult, and assumes 

 a form resembling the ordinary coleopterous grub — the second 

 larva; this form, however, diflFers so much in its earlier and later 

 life, a moult intervening, that Mr. Riley has aptly termed the 

 earlier the carabidoid, and the later the scarabaeidoid stao;e. 

 These differences have not been observed in other Meloidae. 

 After another moult, the antepeiudtimate or pseudo-pupa stage 

 is reached ; this Mr. Riley prefers to call the coarctate larva, as 

 it merely becomes rigid and dormant, in which state generally it 

 hibernates. In the spring another moult takes place, and the 

 larva returns to the scarabaeidoid form ; but then, partaking of 

 no food, burrows in the ground, changes to a pupa, and, in less 

 than a week, to a full-fledged beetle. In Meloe and Sitaris the 

 later transformations take place in the skin of the coarctate 

 larva. 



Following up his studies upon the Meloidae, Mr. Riley has 

 discovered a remarkable insect of this group, hitherto unknown, 

 to which he has given the name of Hornia, and which differs 

 from other Meloidae by some remarkable characteristics, being 



