130 SIXTH ANNUAL REPORT 



case (h). The color of this larval house, in our insect, is pale grayish- 

 yellow, and it looks very much as though made solely of dried earth. 

 Indeed, though in some allied European species, as Gene and Rosen- 

 iiauer have abundantly shown, the larval case is cpmposed mainly, if 

 not solely, of the animal's feces, in our Coscinoptera it is composed 

 principally of earth or fine particles of sand, the excrement and other 

 matter, adhering mostly to the outside, and only sufficient to give a 

 faint greenish tinge to the whole, when moistened and comminuted. 

 When submitted to great heat the small amount of organic matter is 

 observable in the odor and a slight discoloration, but no ash is pro- 

 'duced, and the sand crystals are visible with a good lens, and grate 

 under pressure of a knife-blade. The case is, for these reasons, quite 

 brittle, and easily resolved into a fine powder; and we can, with this 

 knowledge, understand the philosophy of the ridges, which are evi- 

 dently intended to give strength to the case, and not for mere fantasy 

 or ornament. 



The larva of this insect differs little from those of other case- 

 bearing genera, such as Ghlamys^ Clythra^ Crj/ptocephalus (Fig. 37' 

 Chlamys plicata, Oliv. — after Packard): indeed, species and even gen- 

 era are more easily distinguished, in this state, by the cases themselves 

 [Fig. 37 ] than by the larvae that dwell within them. It 



is of a yellowish-white color, with the head, a 

 shield on the first joint, and the legs, brown- 

 ^ black (/', underside of head; k, jaws; Z,maxil- 

 ^ lary palpus; j^ leg enlarged); and as will be 

 ''^'"luInd^S.rilf ^;:""" seen by the figure (a\ with the posterior part of 

 the body rather heavy and curled under, something as in a small. 

 White Grub, or May-beetle larva. The anus is thus brought in close 

 contact with the legs, and the excrement is passed by these to the 

 mouth and ejected, and the case thus kept clear inside. 



I have not yet succeeded in bringing the insect through all its 

 transformations, but have kept it feeding for ten months from the egg, 

 or from the 1st of June till into the following March; and judging from 

 the fact that at the end of this time the larval growth was not more 

 than half attained, it is probable that, as is known to be the case with 

 some European Clythras, more than one year is required for its full 

 development. From analogy we may, with sufficient certainty, infer 

 that when full grown, it closes up the mouth of its case, turns around 

 in it before becoming a pupa, and finally eats its way out as a beetle, 

 not from the broad and sealed mouth, but through a lid cut at the 

 small apical end originally surmounted with the egg-case. The larvae 

 of some European species of Clythra are known to climb onto plants 



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