Meloide. | HETEROMERA. 93 
constricted at some distance behind eyes, which are variable and finely 
granulated ; antennz 11-jointed (in our genera), inserted before the 
eyes at the sides of the front; thorax narrower at base than elytra, not 
margined, prosternum short ; elytra variable ; abdomen composed of six 
free ventral segments ; legs long or moderately long, with distinct tibial 
spurs; tarsi compressed, with the penultimate joint not bilobed, and 
with the claws split; larve in several species assuming successively 
several forms, “in the first of which it is a very small active Pediculus- 
like parasite infesting bees of different genera, and is called a triunguline ” 
(Horn and Leconte). 
The family is divided into two tribes by some authors, but as Sttaris 
seems to be in several respects a connecting link between Meloé and 
Lytta, it seems best not to divide them too sharply. Sixteen genera 
and about one hundred and sixty species occur in Europe, of which three 
genera, represented by nine species, are found in Britain. _ 
I. Side pieces of meso- and metasternum covered by the 
elytra, the inflexed portion of which is very broad ; elytra 
abbreviated and imbricate; metasternum short . 3 
II. Side pieces of meso- and metasternum not covered by 
the elytra, the inflexed portion of which is narrow; 
metasternum long. 
i. Elytra short and narrow, almost rudimentary, strongly 
GIVATICALCAIN cal tech eraoii ss sete dere buyte ccligay) os) (SITARIS; Lats: 
ii. Elytra long, covering abdomen, parallel-sided and not 
GIVATICHLO Mines menae ccs), ui cea acd Ge om hoy ee ae, ey e. UNTUAS Fr, 
Meto:£, Z. 
MELOE, Linné. 
This genus contains rather more than seventy species, the majority of 
which are found in cold and temperate countries; species have, how- 
ever, been described from Northern Africa, Madeira, Madagascar, 
Mexico, &c. ; they are large and conspicuous insects, with a peculiar 
facies, and may easily be known by the crumpled-looking divaricate and 
imbricate elytra and exposed abdomen, which is often extremely enlarged 
in the female and contains thousands of eggs; the antennz are thick, 
submoniliform, and more or less strongly thickened in middle in some 
species ; the head is large with the eyes small; the thorax is small, 
being often narrower than the head; the elytra are broadly inflexed 
over the side pieces of the abdomen, and the metasternum is short; the 
species vary in size, the females being usually much larger than the 
males, and the colour also is more or less variable; they are extremely 
sluggish in their motions. 
The transformations of Meloé are described by Thomson (Skand. Col. 
vi. 340), and notices of the young larva have been given by many 
authors ; Kirby described it as Pediculus melitte, Dufour as Triungu- 
linus tricuspidatus, and Newport published an important monograph on 
the question of its changes, with plates, in the Transactions of the 
