OF THE STATK ENTOMOLOGIST. 101 



dead animal matter. The larva of Clerus apiarias (Linn.) is found in 

 hives feeding on the young of the common Honey-bee, The larva of 

 Corynetes violaceus. a species common to Europe and America, has 

 been found in the powder borings of deal wood in England, but as Mr. 

 Westwood* suggests, it was doubtless preying on the true wood-borer 

 {Anohium,)^]\x8i as I have found the larva of a large and beautiful 

 click-beetle, Ilemirhipus fascicularis^ Fabr.) in the heart of pecan and 

 hickory trees, but always in such as were infested with the Hickory 

 Borer {CJutus \_Cyllene\ pictus^ Drury), whose burrows it follows, and 

 whose larva it probably preys on. 



The genus Necrohia^ (meaning life in death), which differs so little 

 from Corynetes that it is not therefrom separated by the best authors, 

 is noted, from one of its species {rutlcollis Latr.) having been instru- 

 mental in saving the life of the celebrated French entomologist Lat- 

 reille. As he himself has written: "In the days which begat revo- 

 lutionary fanaticism and the unbridled ambition of some men, I 

 found this insect at Bordeaux, on the walls of the prison in which I was 

 detained. Enclosed in a small roll of linen, sealed up, and sent to 

 Bory de St. Vincent, this insect became the means of my deliverance." 

 Latreille was at that time a priest at Brives-la-Gaillarde, and, with 

 others who had not taken the oath, was thrown into prison at Bordeaux 

 and condemned to transportation to Guiana for life. One day, finding 

 this new Necrohla^ as above stated, he examined it with such interest 

 and delight that the prison surgeon who was present asked, "Is it a 

 rare insect " ? " Yes, " replied Latreille. " In that case, " said the sur- 

 geon, " you should give it to me : I have a friend who has a fine collec- 

 tion of insects, and who would be interested in the rare specimen."' 

 This friend was Bory de St. Vincent, who, becoming interested in Lat- 

 reille, managed to obtain his release from prison just as the vessel he 

 was to have left in (and which foundered off Cordova, with only the 

 sailors saved) was about to sail; and finally succeeded in having Lat- 

 reille's name scratched off the list of exiles. 



Corynetes rufipes — Larva (Fig 2G, «) — Body 12-jointt'd ; largest in middle, nar- 

 rowing slio^htly both ways ; faintly wrinkled transversely, (one wrinkle, between the 

 joints, most prominent laterally), and with two longitudinal lateral folds ; sparsely 

 covered with pale ferruginous stiff hairs ; color grayish-white with a series of brown 

 patches each side superiorly; venter paler; joint 1 with a rounded, brown, horny 

 shield covering it superiorlj'^, and joint 12 with a more flattened plate terminating in 

 two black, recurved, dull-pointed projections ; stigmata circular, very inconspicuous, 

 but normally arranged, viz.; 1 each side between joints 1 and 2, and in the middle of 

 joints 4-11. Legs (Fig. 26,/) rather shoit, slightly pilose, the tarsus formed of a single 

 claw ; the fleshy anus is prominent, and is used as a sort of pseudo^jod. Head dark 

 brown, longer than broad, and slightly narrowest in front; flattened ; superiorly very 



•Intr. etc. 1, p. 267. 



