BULLETIN NUMBER 23, DECEMBER, 1893. 



93 



yal stage (Fig. 23, c. d.) The fifth moult causes this hardeued shell 

 to split open and from it there issues the ultimate larva, which resembles 

 the scaraboid stage in appearance, except that the larva is more active 

 and moves about-without feeding, however. It burrows a short distance 

 into the soil, where it forms a cavity within which, in the course of a few 

 days, it transforms with the sixth moult to the true pupa, (Fig. 24.) 

 It is in the coarctate larva stage that the insect generally passes the win- 

 ter, the true pupa state being assumed only in early 

 summer just before the perfect beetles issue from the 

 ground. 



These curious larval changes are designated as 

 hypermetamorphoses by entomologists, and it will 

 be seen from the figures and from the brief descrip- 

 tions, that with each moult until the coarctate larval 

 stage is assumed, there is a rapid reduction in the 



Fig. 24 Epicauta size of the legs and mouth-parts, and the animal be- 



sidf "ViewT'bf llTel comes more and more helpless. The habit of feeding 

 ventral view. ' ' on locust or grasshopper eggs to a certain degree off- 



sets the destructive habits of the perfect beetles. 



