COLEOPTEKA. 167 



less widely removed from the standard than the larvae 

 of Hemiptera. Other families, however, of normal 

 form, such as the May-beetles and others among La- 

 mellicorn beetles, have soft-bodied, cylindrical grubs, 

 which retain only the active habits and legs and the 

 immature proportions of the thoracic rings in the 

 Thysanuriform larvae, while some of the Chrysomelidae 

 (leaf-beetles), Lampyridae (fire-flies, glow-worms, 

 etc.), and others may have larvae of cylindrical type, 

 similar to caterpillars in their shape and aspect, 

 though quite different in not having legs on the 

 abdomen, and in their internal structures. Others, 

 again (Cerambycidae), even among normal forms, 

 may have larvae, in whose soft, cylindrical bodies 

 only traces of the legs remain, the biting-jaws, how- 

 ever, being well developed. Finally, in the weevils, 

 the most highly specialized representatives of this 

 order, with curious abnormal head and prothorax, a 

 footless grub form becomes common, and the Thy- 

 sanuroid ancestor is not represented. That the active, 

 hexapod grub is a derivative from the more primitive 

 Thysanuriform larva is settled by the development of 

 such genera as Meloe and Sitaris, in both of which 

 the primitive larval stages appear before the grub 

 stage is reached. That the footless grubs are, as a 

 rule, derived from the active hexapod grubs is also 

 probable, since the footless grub follows after the six- 

 footed form, and is developed from it, whenever these 

 stages occur in the same individual. It would, there- 

 fore, seem to be highly probable that the footless 

 larvae of the weevils were derived from an ancient 

 type which possessed an active hexapod larva like the 



