20 Mr. H. Donisthorpc on 



drops the eggs on to the ground beneath. The eggs are 

 covered by a case, or capsule, which is placed around it by 

 the $ , and consists of her own excrement. This covering 

 is placed in position with the posterior tarsi, the egg being 

 held in the depression of the abdomen. The covered egg 

 looks exactly like a small bract, and is exceedingly like 

 the end of a birch catkin. The ants pick up the covered 

 egg and carry it into the nest. The young larva, which 

 hatches in about twenty-one days, uses the egg-case as a 

 nucleus on which to build the larval case; thus very young 

 larval cases have the e^Sf-case still attached to their 

 posterior end. The egg-case has a threefold raison d'etre — 

 to protect the egg and newly-hatched larva, to make the 

 ants believe it is a bit of useful vegetable refuse, and to 

 give the larva a foundation on which to start the larval 

 case. When the larval case grows larger, the e^g-case 

 breaks off, and the larva fills up the hole thus formed 

 with the same material as that with which it builds the 

 rest of the case. This material consists of its own excre- 

 ment mixed with earth, which it prepares with its 

 mandibles. To enlarge the case the larva removes 

 particles from the inside, and plastei"s them on to the 

 outside. The larva feeds on vegetable refuse in the nest. 

 When changing its skin it fastens the case to some object 

 in the nest. When full-grown it fastens the case to a piece 

 of wood or twig, and turning completely round, changes to 

 a pupa, facing the broader end of the case. When 

 hatched the beetle gets out of the case at this broader end, 

 by biting a circle round inside it, thus forming a cap, which 

 it forces off. 



I now give as much of the bibliography as I have been 

 able to find on the subject. 



Schaller (Abhand. der Hall. Naturf. Gesellschaft, Bd. i, 

 p. 328, 1783) points out that it is not only the larvic of 

 Lepidoptera and Neuroptera that make cases, but also 

 coleopterous ones ; and that a whole family of Cliryaomc- 

 lidiB have this habit. He then records having found ten 

 cases containing larvaj under a stone ; these cases and the 

 larvae he describes, and figures the former. He says, to 

 pupate the larva turns round and faces the other end of 

 its case. He mentions tliat Chrysomela quadri-functaia, 

 emerged from these cases, and that the food of the larvae 

 must be very different to that of the perfect insect. 



Gene (Ann. des Sc. Natur., xx, pp. 143-156, 1830) relates 



