138 MODERN CLASSIFICATION OF INSECTS. 



their progeny ; the great quantity of materials (viz. four frogs, three 

 small birds, two fishes, one mole, two grasshoppers, the entrails of a 

 fish, and two pieces of ox's liver) which Gleditsch's four confined 

 beetles interred in a small piece of ground in fifty days, must, how- 

 ever, have been much more than sufficient for the nourishment of their 

 future progeny, and it was only because these carcasses were placed 

 within their reach that they continued their burying propensities. 



The larvae hatched from the eggs deposited in the buried carcass 

 (and which now serves for their nourishment) are fleshy, and of a 

 long and spindle-shaped form (^fig. 10. 8. larva of Necr. humator), 

 narrowed at each end, with a scaly head, and a scaly plate upon the 

 upper surface of each segment, diminishing in size upon the terminal 

 segments, and having several strong spines on its surface, which, from 

 the shortness and weakness of the legs, Latreille imagines are em- 

 ployed in pushing the body through the putrifying matter in which 

 the insects are found when full grown. These larvae are nearly an inch 

 and a half in length. They then form for themselves a cell under 

 ground, with the inner surface smooth and shining, and in which they 

 assume the pupa state {fig. 10. 9.), being at first of a whitish colour, 

 and having two strong anal spines whereby they are enabled to turn 

 themselves about in their cell ; as they advance to maturity they 

 gradually assume a darker colour. The figures of the larva and pupa 

 of Necrophorus humator are from Rosel's Insect. Belustig. vol. iv. 

 pLl. 



In the Sexton beetles we have seen that as the larva is reared in the 

 midst of a supply of food, it is provided only with weak legs and a 

 cylindric fleshy body ; but in the larvre of the flat species, composing 

 the genera Silpha, Oiceoptoma, &c., which feed upon the same sub- 

 stances as the perfect insect, and are compelled to seek their own 

 food, the legs are much stronger ; the body more crustaceous, broad, 

 and flat, thus representing the perfect insect ; the posterior lateral 

 angles of each segment are produced into a short but acute point ; the 

 anterior or prothoracic segment is the largest, covering the head ; the 

 mouth is furnished with a pair of strong jaws, &c. ; and the antennae 

 are 3-jointed ; the extremity of the legs is armed with a claw ; the anal 

 segment is furnished at the sides with two small slender conical ap- 

 pendages without joints. These larvae run quickly. They undergo 

 their transformations in the ground. Figures of these last-mentioned 

 kind of larvae are given by De Gear {Mem, vol. iv. tab. 6. Phos- 



