302 MODERN CLASSIFICATION OF INSECTS. 



[Dillwyn, p. 62.) When alarmed, they emit from the joints of the 

 legs an oily yellowish liquor, whence they have obtained the name of 

 oil beetles. In some parts of Spain, they are used instead of the 

 blister-fly, or are mixed with it. They are also said by Latreille to 

 be employed by farriers ; and Hoppe tells us that they were, when 

 he wrote (1795) in use as a specific against hydrophobia in Germany ; 

 and the oil which is expressed from these insects is used in Sweden 

 with the greatest success, in the cure of rheumatism, by bathing the 

 affected part. (^Drurys Insects.^ General Hardwick has also described 

 a species of Meloe, found in all parts of Bengal, Bahar, and Oude, 

 possessing all the properties of the Spanish blistering fly. {Asiatic 

 Research, vol. v. ed. Oct. p. 213. 4-23.) From the medicinal pro- 

 perties of these insects, Latreille has surmised in his ingenious 

 memoirs upon the Buprestis of the ancients {Mem. du Mus.d' Hist. 

 Nat. vol. xii.), that that noxious animal must have been a Meloe. M. 

 Blot, however, contends, on the contrary, that the Meloe is not 

 serviceable in medicine. {3Iem. Soc. Linn, Calvados., vol. i. p. 32.) 



The preparatory states of these insects have been the subject 

 of much controversy. According to Goedart (pi. 120. a.), Linngeus, 

 Frisch (vol. I. pt. 6. t. 6.), and De Geer (vol. 5. pi. I.), the females burrow 

 into the earth, and there deposit a large mass of yellow eggs, aggluti- 

 nated together, which produce minutelarvae of along narrowed flattened 

 form [Jig. 34. 20. nat. size in a scroll ; 34'. 21. ditto, magnified), with 

 13-jointed bodies, six short legs, and two long anal setas {Jig.'i^. 22. 

 represents the underside of the head; 34. 23. one of the mandibles ; 

 34. 24. the side of the head from above ; 34. 25. one of the antennae ; 

 and 34. 26. one of the legs of these minute creatures). They are 

 exceedingly active in their movements, attaching themselves to flies, 

 bees, &c., which it is said that they suck. This statement has been 

 confirmed by Doubleday {Ent. Mag. ii. 453.), Saint Fargeau and 

 Serville {Encycl.vol. 10.), Erichson and Brandt, and more recently 

 by the Rev. L. Jenyns, who has kindly supplied me with specimens 

 in spirits, actually reared by himself from the eggs of the Meloe. Mr. 

 Kirby, on the other hand, regarded them as apterous parasites, naming 

 them Pediculus Melittae {Monogr. Ap. Angl. vol. 2. p. 168. pi. 14. 

 f. 10-12.) ; and Dufour has even formed them into a distinct genus 

 of parasitic Aptera, under the name of Triungulinus (An7i. des Sc. 

 Nat. 1828). Latreille at first adopted the opinion of Mr. Kirby, but 

 subsequently that of De Geer. Walckenaer has collected all the facts 



