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II. The Life History of Clythra quadri-pimctata, L. By 

 HoKACE St. John K. Donisthorpe, F.Z.S. 



[Read December 4th, 1901.] 



Plate III. 



It is my intention to lay before you in this short paper an 

 outline of the complete life history of Clythra quadri- 

 pwictata. A certain amount has been written upon the 

 subject, but such writings are scattered and fragmentary, 

 and in none is there a complete account of the creature's 

 life history, nor has even what was known been connected 

 together. I hope to fill up this blank in the life history 

 of one of our common beetles. I have had all the stages 

 under my close observation during the last two years, and 

 have endeavoured not only to test and connect together 

 what has been done already, but to find out and prove 

 those facts which were unknown heretofore. 



I give at the end of my paper a short sketch of what 

 has been written before. 



The two most important points which still required 

 elucidating were how the larva gets into the ants' nest in 

 which it is found, and on what it lives when there. 



I commence my account of the life history from the 

 point at which I myself began to study it, and this con- 

 sisted of the larvae and the larval cases taken from the 

 ants' nests. 



Now to carry on any experiments in this matter success- 

 fully, two things are necessary — a good supply of the larva, 

 and a nest of its host, Formica rtifa, in such a form that it 

 can be under close observation and yet be as natural as 

 possible. In order that much that follows may be under- 

 stood, it becomes necessary for me to describe how I 

 procured and arranged the latter of these requisites. In 

 April I went to a nest of Formica rufa I had noticed at 

 Oxshott. I found the ants " massing " on the hillock in 

 the sun. I took a number of the workers, and about 

 twelve queens, and several handfuls of the debris of the 

 nest, and placed them all in a bag. On reaching home I 

 placed the contents of the bag in a wooden box. I had 



TRANS. ENT. SOC. LOND. 1902. — PART I. ( APRIL) 



