The TAfc History of Clythra quadri-punctata. 19 



of the young larvoe, which hatched in about twenty-one days. 

 Dr. Chapman thus described a newly-hatched larva he 

 bred from one of the eggs I sent to him last year : " The 

 larva is very like a miniature cockchafer-grub in having 

 the abdominal segments acutely bent forwards. The head 

 is large, the antennae short and stumpy, of two joints, the 

 first so thick, and the second so square, at the end as to 

 look like the two basal joints of a lepidopterous antennse with 

 the remainder broken off. The mouth-parts are well seen. 

 The legs are very long, more than half the length of the 

 body ; the coxos, femora, and tibias being very long ; the 

 tarsi are represented by a good claw only, which is how- 

 ever not a claw, but a joint, as it carries a hair or two." 



When I before referred to the cases I took in the Blean 

 Woods, I mentioned that I got them of all sizes. On the 

 smallest cases I observed that the closed end was of a 

 different material to the rest of the case; this on examina- 

 tion with the microscope turned out to be an egg-case. 

 It is therefore evident that the egg-case fulfils several 

 very important functions. First, to deceive the ants as 

 to its real nature, and induce them to pick it up and take 

 it into their nest, as they will any small vegetable substance, 

 etc. ; then, not only to protect the young larva from the 

 ants, but to give it a foundation on which to commence 

 the building of the larval case. 



Fabre says that the egg-case (speaking of species ot 

 Clythra and Cryptoc&plialui) is covered over by the 

 larval case, and may sometimes be found incrusted in it. 

 This is not however my experience with Clythra quadri- 

 punctata. I have found larval cases which were a little 

 bigger than those just described, in which the egg-case 

 had broken off, leaving a small hole. The hole is not 

 large enough to be of any danger to the larva, and is 

 soon filled up with the same material as the rest of the 

 case. 



To recapitulate the foregoing facts : The life history of 

 Clythra quadri-punctata is briefly as follows. When the 

 beetle has emerged from the pupa in the nest, it escapes 

 with caution, " feigning death," and holding on to twigs, 

 when attacked by the ants. It then seeks its mate, and 

 copulation takes place. The beetles are generally to be found 

 on biixli shrubs, the young shoots and leaves of which they 

 eat, biting the top shoots right through. The $ then seeks a 

 tree or shrub above or close to a nest of Formica rv.fa, and 



