COLEOPTERA. — CAMTHARID.li. 301 



soluble in boiling alcohol. Its larvae are stated by Latreille to reside 

 under ground, and to feed upon the roots of vegetables, and are 

 produced from a mass of agglutinated eggs. They have the body 

 soft, and of a yellowish white, composed of thirteen segments, with 

 two short filiform antennae, and six short scaly feet. Professor 

 Loschge has published an account of the eggs and young larva? in the 

 Naturforscher (Stuck 23.), which latter appear to be identical 

 in form with the insect, subsequently described as the supposed 

 larvae of Meloe. 



M. Zier has also described the larva? produced from the eggs of 

 Cantharis vesicatoria, as exactly agreeing with those of Meloe 

 (^Bullet. Sc, Nat. Jan. 1830); he, however, states that the egg is 

 transformed into a larva without the slightest trace of the outer 

 envelope being visible. Dr. Ilatzeburg has still more recently pub- 

 lished a figure of this insect, as the larva of Cantharis vesicatoria, in 

 his Die Forst. Insecteii., vol. i. t. 2. f. 27. B. 



The other species of this genus are very numerous, and are found 

 in China, India, America, he, possessing similar powers to those of 

 the officinal species. In North America, the Cantharis vittata Fab., 

 which is found abundantly on potatoes, and is called the potato fly, is 

 employed instead of the Spanish species. 



A species of Mylabris, confounded with the Chinese M. cichorii 

 Linn.*, is also employed in the southern countries of Europe, as 

 being equally efficacious with the C. vesicatoria ; and the Chinese 

 make use of the M. cichorii and another species, M. pustulata Oliv. 

 (Sidae Fabr. var.), for the like purposes, which is exported to Rio, 

 and is the only vesicant used in Brazil. Indeed it is evident, from 

 the account of Dioscorides and Pliny, that the first of these species 

 of Mylabris was the ordinary vesicatory beetle of the ancients. 



The genus Meloe is now confined to those apterous species, which 

 have the body large and distended, with the elytra short, oval, and 

 lapping over each other, at the base of the suture {Jig' 34'. 17. Meloe au- 

 tumnalis ; 34.18. ungues; and 34.19. antenna of Meloe proscarabaeus,? ). 

 These insects crawl slowly along upon the ground, or amongst low 

 herbage, upon which they feed, especially relishing the wild butter- 

 cups (Ranunculus bulbosus and R. acris). Mr. Jcffi-eys also found 

 them very abundant on Arum maculatum, near Cronilym Burrows. 



* See an excellent avticle uj)on the species of this genus, by M- (mu rin, in tlie 

 Dictionn. Pittoresquc d'Hist. Nat. No. 389. vol. v. p. 550. 



