COLEOPTERA. — IIISPID.'E. 379 



filaments, which gives the insect a singular appearance. Lyonnet has 

 figured the transformations of two species (Jlem. Posthum. p. 118. 

 pi. 12. fig. 1 — 12.), which M. de Haan considers to be C. vittata and 

 C. murraca. Lyonnet does not, however, appear to have been ac- 

 quainted with the merdigerous habits of the larvae, although he de- 

 scribes the anal fork. Latreille has given an account of the trans- 

 formations of a species of Cassida in the Atmales du Museum, vol. i., 

 as has also Frisch (vol. i. pt. 4. t. 15.). The transformations of Cassida 

 obsoleta are described in the Magazine of Natural History for 1837, 

 p. 276., by W. Gardiner, the larvae of which feed upon the leaves of 

 Centaurea nigra. The larvae of some of the exotic species of Cas- 

 sida (C. ampulla Oliv.^, as well as those of the genus Imatidium, are 

 also merdigerous, producing an assemblage of very long filaments, 

 resembling a filamentous lichen. 



The late General liardwicke published an account of the transform- 

 ations of a beautiful East Indian species of Cassida, in the sixteenth 

 number of the Mag. of Nat. History. (My f/g. 4^6. 12. represents the 

 imago, and 46. 13. the larva of this species.) It was ibund pretty 

 common in the botanical garden at Calcutta ; the larvae destroying 

 the foliage of a fine convolvulus. The larva closely resembles my 

 figure of that of C. viridis ; but the lateral rays are much longer, and 

 anal ftccifork much shorter. M. L. Dufour has observed that C. vi- 

 ridis is subject to the parasitic attacks of a Dipterous insect (Ocyj)- 

 tera Cassida;), the larva of which is nourished within the abdominal 

 cavity of the perfect beetle (Anat. Coleopt. p. 238.). 



Of the habits of the remarkable genus Hispa {Jig. 45. 19. Hispa atra) 

 the only account hitherto published is that given by Dr. T. \V. Harris, 

 in the first volume of the Boston Journal of Natural History, 1835, to 

 whom I am indebted for specimens of the insects described in his in- 

 teresting memoir. " The larva of this genus has not the most distant 

 resemblance to that of Cassida, or to any other now known among the 

 genera with which it has been artificially associated. So far as mere 

 form is concerned, it is related to the wood-feeding larva; of the Ca- 

 pricorn beetles, particularly of the genus Callidium, whilst its habits 

 are those of the leaf-mining caterpillars of certain moths." In this 

 memoir the transformations of Hispa rosea,- Quercifolia', suturalis and 

 vittata, are minutely described. I much regret that my limits will 

 not permit me to give a detailed abstract. The larva (Jig. 1-5. 20. 

 larva of H. quercifoliac) has the head smaller than the following 



