( cxvi ) 



Melanotus you may dig out of rotten stumps or sweep from 

 herbage or beat off trees. And this is the way you would 

 also find Athous or Elater with their simple claws. The 

 Cistelidx are all, I think, found on trees and shrubs, the larvae 

 of many of them living under bark. The Cantharidse are 

 many of them at least parasitic. One would have to know 

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

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

 the Cassididae., the majority with simple claws and the minority 

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

 perfect state, there being apparently no difference in their 

 habits. Our Scorpion-fly Panorpa is predaceous, 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, bvit I have already alluded to them on account 

 of their curious prehensile character. Ilarpobittacus australis, 

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

 legs hanging loosely down ready to strike out the moment a 

 fly comes within range. The long flexible tarsi fold round 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 there is a specimen of this insect 

 with a small caterpillar in its hind tarsus. 



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

 mention, the Hippohoscidae, The claws in these flies vary 

 very much ; they are somewhat complex, combining the 

 toothed and appendiculate claw in one. The insects live 

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

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

 is surely here. One notes, however, 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 diflerent forms of claw have appar- 

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

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



