160 COLEOPTERA. 



tory is followed, but the pseudo-pupa is still more like 

 a true pupa, the skin not being cast off, but retained, 

 and all changes preparatory to the appearance of the 

 fourth form taking place inside of this covering. In 

 these cases, as in all the forms which have a true quies- 

 cent pupa, this follows after a period during which the 

 insect has eaten a large quantity of food, while not 

 doing any correspondingly large amount of work, 

 hunting, fighting, nest-making, reproduction, etc. The 

 nutriment, not being used or burned up in the body 

 to supply the waste of the tissues occasioned by such 

 labors, accumulates. Then a period of rest comes, as 

 a natural consequence of the gorged condition of the 

 tissues, and the creature takes an after-dinner nap, 

 while the body keeps on in the natural course of its 

 development into the next stage. That it is develop- 

 ment and not growth that takes place is shown by the 

 actual shrinkage of the adult, so that the next stage of 

 the development is readily contained inside of the old 

 skin of the last active form, and is not uncomfortably 

 accommodated, although it may have acquired longer 

 legs and other modifications of parts, requiring con- 

 siderable room for their proper storage. The habits 

 leading to the quiescent larval or pseudo-pupal stage 

 in these remarkable forms are, therefore, precisely 

 comparable to those which usually precede the true 

 pupal stage in other groups. It is also to be noted 

 that the fourth larval form in the Meloidae does not 

 do much feeding, if any, and seems to be merely a 

 provision for removing the animal from its feeding 

 grounds to some more appropriate place, where the 

 pupa can be safe while going through the necessary 

 changes in its development. 



