COL^OPTERA. SILPIIIDiE. 139 



phuga atrata.* Vol. vii. tab. 44. Oiceoptoma rugosa) ; Scliilffer (Ab- 

 h<mdlung, vol. iii. pi. 7. Oiceoptoma thoracica, and Phosphuga atrata); 

 and by Brulle, in the Expedition Scientifiqiie de Moree, liv. iii. 

 pi. 29. larva of Silpha — ? with structural details. Dr. Heer, in his 

 Ohservationes Entomological, has published a detailed description, with 

 figures of the larva of Silpha alpina Bon., which is broadly oval and 

 subconvex, of a shining black colour, with the terminal segment of the 

 body small and armed with two corneous conical spines ; the mandibles 

 are robust and horny, with a small tooth near the tip ; the maxillary 

 terminal lobe is broad, and denticulated along the inner margin ; the 

 eyes are four on each side of the head, arranged in a square. Frisch 

 has figm-ed the transformations of Silpha obscura (Part vi. tab. 5.) I 

 have found many of these larva; being of a broader or narrower form 

 according to the species ; but not having succeeded in rearing them, 

 I have preferred figuring the larva of Oiceoptoma thoracica after 

 Schiiffer, but corrected. In some of my larva?, the body exhibits thirteen 

 distinct segments exclusive of the head ; the eleventh segment is trans- 

 verse, and produced on each side behind into a point ; the twelfth is 

 transverse, from the sides of which is emitted the pair of short slender 

 conical processes above mentioned, which are aboat the length of the 

 following joint, which is probably the exserted portion of the anal ap- 

 paratus. In some of these larvae the antennge {Jig. 10. 14.) are nearly 

 as long as the prothoracic segment, and nearly as thick as the legs ; 

 the lateral anal appendages are also in some of them articulated be- 

 yond the middle. The mandibles, maxillae, and labium of the larva 

 figured above are represented ai Jigs. 10. ii. 12. and 13. I have also 

 some larvae which I apprehend belong to this family, having the head 

 not concealed beneath the prothorax, which is short and transverse, 

 and the head broad ; these have the anal appendages much larger than 

 in the preceding, f 



M, Laporte has noticed a singular instance of vitality in Silpha 

 carinata in the Annalcs de la Soc. Ent. de France, 1836, (p. xxx. 

 vol. iv.), which lived a long time after its entrails had been entirely 

 consumed by acari, with which it was infested. 



The name of the typical genus Silpha was employed by Aristotle 



* De Geer states tliis species became a pupa on the 24th of August, and arrived 

 at the perfect state on the 2d of September. 



j- Panzer {Faun, Ins. Germ. 41. t. 7. c. d. ) has represented the larva of one of 

 the Silphidaj under the name of the female of Lampyris noctiluca. 



