" Pediciilus MelittcB " of Kirhy. 117 



in case of need, the honey-bag of a hive-bee having proved 

 acceptable to the larva of C anthems vesicatoria (Ibid). 



2. Another test, no less efficacious, would be the con- 

 verse of the former, involving less preliminary compli- 

 cations and readily applicable. This would consist in 

 simply inclosing within separate tubes some of the ordi- 

 nary yellow larvae of Meloe, whether bred or found at 

 large ; supplying them with some suitable pabulum, such 

 as they might find in the cells of Anthophova, and 

 leaving them for a certain period in complete obscurity, 

 the tubes not corked, but well closed with an admixture 

 of paper and earth, to prevent all possibility of escape, 

 whereby their contested pseudo-metamorphosis in size 

 and colour might be verified in the sequel. 



3. A further test, depending upon the structure of the 

 antennae in different species of Meloe larvae, would also 

 be available, for in those of M. cicatricosus the terminal 

 3rd joint is very elongate and slender (twice as long, and 

 less than half as broad, as the 2nd) ; whereas it is as 

 short as, or shorter than, the 2nd in other species. A 

 corresponding diversity in the antennae should therefore 

 be apparent among the black as among the yclloiv in- 

 dividuals, when any of the latter have been occasionally 

 arrested in their development. 



In the P. Melittce found at Hamp stead, where M. 

 cicatricosus is not met with, the antennae invariably 

 exhibit the short terminal joint as aforesaid, which like- 

 wise occurs in some few specimens that I have obtained 

 from other localities (Norwich and Tunbridge Wells) ; 

 but, strange as it would appear, the former are not known 

 to occur on the Continent, where the M. cicatricosus is 

 not uncommon ; and M. Lichtenstein, to whom I am 

 indebted for the young larvae of this species reared from 

 the egg, has not succeeded in finding any black in- 

 dividuals within the range of his researches. He has 

 however observed that artificial honey-paste proves more 

 attractive to some of these hexapod larvae when com- 

 bined with a portion of animal matter, such as the 

 macerated larvae of a bee or wasp, thus imjjarting a 

 delectable flavour which they seem to relish, and whereby 

 (in the case of Cantharis) he succeeded in obtaining the 

 first moult {Ibid). 



I may mention, in conclusion, that I possess two other 

 black larvae considerably broader and proiDortionally 

 less elongate than the P. Melittce ; these were presented to 



