66 MODERN CLASSIFICATION OF INSECTS. 



an inch and a half long, subclepressed and fleshy ; the upper 

 surface of each segment and the head are, however, more scaly ; 

 the tail is terminated by two horny spines, and the head is 

 armed with two powerful jaws, wherewith it seizes the body 

 of its struggling prey, which consists of the fleshy larvae of 

 Lepidoptera. As it is very ravenous, devouring several large Cater- 

 pillars in a day, it has the sagacity to find its way to the nests of 

 the gregarious i^rocessionary Moths, in the midst of which it takes 

 up its abode ; and Reaumur states, that he never found a nest of 

 these Caterpillars which was not infested with from one to six of 

 these larvae : here they feed in the midst of their prey (not even 

 sparing them when they have become chrysalides), in so gluttonous 

 a manner that the segments of the body become distended, and ren- 

 der it unfit for any movement, so that it becomes an easy prey to its 

 young and more active brethren, which, in mere wantonness, seize it 

 with their jaws, although surrounded by their natural food. All 

 Reaumur's larvae died before they became perfect insects ; but there 

 can be but little doubt, that they are the larvae of the Calosomae, 

 of which, as Reaumur observes, the habits are precisely similar; in- 

 deed, Clairville, and the French entomologists, appear to entertain 

 none upon this subject. And M. Boisgerard, in a communication 

 made to M. Audouin (published by the latter, in the Hist. Nat. Ins. 

 t. V. p. 9i.), states, that having placed some female Calosomae upon 

 trees greatly infested with the Caterpillars of Bombyx Dispar, the 

 larvae of the Calosoma; were found in the following season in the nests 

 of the Caterpillars, and that in the course of two or three years the 

 trees were cleared. Dr. Burmeister has published a very elaborate 

 account of the anatomy of the larvae of Calosoma Sycophanta (which 

 is not rare in the pine forests in the vicinity of Berlin, where, both 

 in the larva and perfect state, it devours the Caterpillars of Bombj'x 

 Dispar, and other Moths,) in the first volume of the Transactions of 

 the. Entom. Soc. of London, illustrated with two plates. This larva 

 does not confine itself to Lepidopterous Caterpillars, for Nicolai 

 informs us, that it is occasionally found in some profusion, in the pine 

 forests near Halle in Germany, devouring the larva? of the Saw-fly 

 of the pine, Lophyrus Pini. {Dissert. Inaugural, p. 13.)* 



M. Audouin has also j)ublished (in the Hist. Nat. Ins. vol. v. p. 99.) 

 an account of the larva of one of the largest European species of the 



* Dr. Ratzebuig lias given several very characteristic figures of this larva (as well 

 as of that of Cicindcla campestris) in his Forst. Insect, (pi. ].), just published. 



