( cxvi ) 



JManotus you may dig out of lotteu stumps or sweep from 

 herbage or beat off trees. And this is tlie way you wouhl 

 also find Athous or Elater with their simjjle cdaws. The 

 CisieUdve are all, I think, found on trees and shrubs, the larvte 

 of many of theni living under bark. The Cantharida', arc 

 many of them at least pai^asitic. One would have to know 

 more of the habits of these than I do befoie venturing to 

 suggest any reason for the great dillerence in their claws. All 

 the Cassididm, the majority with simple claws and the minority 

 with them pectinate, live on plants, both in the larva and 

 ]»erfect state, there being apparently no difference in their 

 habits. Our Scorpion-fly Fanorpa is ])redaceous, and is 

 common on trees or is seen flying from one plant to another. 

 Its larva lives in rotten wood. The allied genus Biltacus has 

 simple claws, but I have already alluded to them on account 

 of their cux-ious prehensile character. llarpohiUaots austrcdis, 

 Mr. Froggatt states, is found hanging about bushes, the hind 

 legs hanging loosely down ready to strike out the moment a 

 fly comes within i-ange. The long flexible tarsi fold I'ound the 

 captive with the stout spines transfixing it, the legs are drawn 

 forwards under the head so that it can press its rostrum into 

 its victim. In the Museum theie is a specimen of this insect 

 with a small cater}>iliar in its hind tarsus. 



Tliere is a little group of insects which I must not omit to 

 mention, the JlijrpoboHcldx. The claws in these flies vary 

 very much; they are somewhat complex, combining the 

 toothed and a])pendiculate claw in one. The insects live 

 among the feathers of birds and in the fur of mannnals. If 

 any claw has been developed to suit the habits of an insect, it 

 is surely here. One notes, hoAvever, that fleas which have the 

 same habits have simple claws. 



I think I have said enough to show that the question as to 

 whether these complex claws have been developed to suit the 

 habits of the species is still an open one. I have shown that 

 very closely allied species have totally different forms of claw; 

 that insects with quite different habits have the same form of 

 claw ; that species with dill'erent forms of claw have appar- 

 ently identical habits. If the pectinate claw, for example, has 

 no special connection with the habit of the insect, but is only 



