220 MODERN CLASSIFICATION OI'" INSECTS. 



The Phyllopertha horticola is sometimes exceedingly abundant 

 during June and July, eating the leaves of various flowers, leaving 

 only the fibres. In this manner they occasionally do great injury to 

 apple and nectarine and other fruit blossoms (except pears), roses, &c. 

 The larvae, according to Stewart, feed upon the roots of Brassica lotris 

 and capitata, leaving B. viridis and subarida untouched. See the Rev. 

 W. T. Bree, in Mag. Nat. Hist., No. xxix. for further interesting par- 

 ticulars respecting this insect. The Hoplice, when alarmed, counterfeit 

 death by extending their legs in a stiffened manner, and in different 

 directions, the fore legs being advanced in front defending the head, 

 the middle legs extended downwards, nearly at right angles with the 

 body, and thus defending the vmder side, and the hind legs being 

 direct upwards and backwards, defending the hinder part of the 

 body. 



Cist (American Journ. of Science, t. viii. p. 269.), has published a 

 notice^ with figures of a North American species of Melolontha in its 

 different states which appears to resemble the common M. vulgaris 

 of Europe. The figures are, however, very defective, and Dejean 

 supposes (Bull. Sc. Nat. vol. ii. p. 174-.) that the species is M. punc- 

 ticollis. 



Mr. Curtis has described and figured a very beautiful insect from 

 Peru, belonging to this family, in the first volume of the Trans, of the 

 Zoological Socictij, under the name of Ancistrosoma Klugii, in which 

 the base of the abdomen in the male is armed with an acute deflexed 

 spine- He has also figured a cocoon transmitted to him by Dr. F. 

 Klug " from which, according to Pavon, this beetle was bred. The 

 cocoon is ovate, hard, and somewhat like those of Trichiosoma Lu- 

 corum in texture ; the operculum is semiorbicular, with a broad 

 hinge, and narrow rim ; the shell of the pupa is similar to that of other 

 Melolonthidae." MumMaO i Loay has, . ho . wev&F, as s ured mo that - this 

 e o e&o a ifr- fe ba t of a L c p id optcrous in3Cot . 



The Glaphyrid^^ MacL. or the Anthobii of Latreille is another 

 exotic family, consisting of insects of a comparatively small size 

 (fig. 22. 11. Anthipna abdominalis, from Italy), having the antennae 

 10-jointed, with a 3-jointed club, the labrum exserted and coriaceous, 

 the mandibles dilated and horny, with the inner margin coriaceous; 



