COLEOPTERA BRACHELYTRA. 161 



cording to Disderi (3Iem. Acad. Turin, torn, xvi, p. 68.) there is no 

 fixed period of the year for the deposition of the eggs by the female. 

 They are nearly a year in attaining their full size, and it is chiefly 

 in warm weather that their ravages are most extensive ; they shed 

 their skin several times, and it would appear that from the nature of 

 their food they are unable to produce any silken or other materials 

 for the formation of a cocoon, but in lieu thereof they retain the last 

 skin of the larva, which serves for a cocoon, having first made a slit 

 down the back, out of which the beetle when arrived at the perfeci. 

 state makes its escape, having made a corresponding slit down the 

 back of the pupa skin, thus leaving the skin of the pupa enclosed 

 within the skin of the larva. (Latreille, in Nouv. Diet. d'Hist. Nat. 

 vol. ii. p. 161.) 



From the minute size of these insects, the greatest care is necessary, 

 in order to prevent them from gaining admission into cabinets or 

 boxes of insects, &c. It is serviceable to place boxes of insects at- 

 tacked by them in tin cases, which may be then immersed in boiling 

 water, whereby not only the larvaj but also the eggs are destroyed. 

 The French entomologists make use of a machine recently invented 

 for this purpose, called a necrentome. (A/m. Soc. Ent. France, 1837.) 

 The larvae appear to be insensible to the effects of camphor ; indeed, I 

 have found them actually harboured under the lumps of this material 

 in my drawers. See also Disderi, in Trans. Soc. Turin, vol. iii. p. 5i. 



The third and remaining stirps of Rypophagous Pentamera, or the 

 fifth of the Chilopodomorpha of MacLeay, is the Brachelytra * a 



* BiBHOGR. Refer, to the Brachelvtra oh Staphylinid^. 

 Paykull. Monogr. Stapliyl. Suecias. Upsal. 8vo. 1789. 

 Gravenhorst. Colcopt. Micropt. Brunsvic. Svo. 1802. — Ditto, Monogr. Coleopt. 



Micropt. Svo. 1806. 

 Rimde. Brachelytrorum Spec. Agri. Halensis. Svo. 1835. 

 Sahlberg. Insecta Fcnnica. 

 Ahrens. Fauna Insect. Europaj. 



Mannerheim, in Mem. Acad. Imp. Sc. St. Petersb. torn. i. 1831. 

 Latreille, in Nouv. Ann du Mus. vol. i. (Mem. on Denticruia or Oxytelides). 

 Ljungh, in Weber and Mohr. Arch, filr Naturg. vols. i. and ii. (Mon. Stenus). 

 Laporte. Etud. Ent. No. 2. 

 Blondel, in Ann. Sc. Nat. 1827 (Prognathus). 

 Dalman, in Anal. Ent. (Zirophorus). 

 Wesmael, in L'Institut. 1834 (Harpognathus). 



M 



