PARASITIC-BEETLES. 115 



parasitic in the bodies or in the nests of bees. Their history was long 

 involved in obscurity, but the development of the larvae of the genus 

 Meloe has been satisfactorily elucidated by Newport, Siebold and other 

 modern observers. It appears that the parent beetles deposit their 

 eggs in the nests of various kinds of bees, but especially those of the 

 humble-bees. The young larvae are sometimes found in the nests, but 

 usually upon the bodies of the bees, from which they draw their nutri- 

 ment. Infested bees, observed in confinement, have been seen to be- 

 comeexhausted by these larviB, thus proving them to be genuine parasites. 

 The following are the principal genera : 



A. Elytra mucb shorter than the abrtomeu, separate at their tips, and usuall3' lapping one upon the 



other at base Meloe, 14 sp. 



A A, Elytra covering the abdomen. 



B. Head large, front not prolonged beyond the base of the antennas ; frontal suture wanting : 



HouiA, 3. 

 B B. Head moderate, front somewhat prolonged, and with a distinct suture. 



C. Mandibles long and acute ; maxilla; greatly elongated Nemognathus, 28. 



C C. Mandibles short and obtuse ; maxill» norman Lytta, 99. 



The genus Ileloe, Linn., is alluded to by Kirby as apparently forming 

 a connecting link between the Coleoptera and the Orthoptera, having 

 the head vertical, and the elytra lai)ping at base, but the resemblance 

 is very remote. The inferior or true wings are wanting, and these in- 

 sects are found on the ground, where they feed upon herbaceous plants, 

 mostly those of the genus Eanunculus. The females become so swollen 

 with eggs that they drag their abdomens with difiBculty along the 

 ground. When captured they exude a yellow oily fluid from the joints 

 of their legs, whence they have received the popular name of oil-beetles. 

 They vary in length from half an inch to an inch, and are either black 

 or of a dark violet-blue color. Our most common species is the Meloe 

 angustacolUs, Say, of a violaceous color, the female upwards of three- 

 quarters of an inch in length 5 the male is considerably smaller, and has 

 the antenna3 remarkably swollen and knotted in the middle. 



We have two species of the genus Eoria, Fab., both of which are ex- 

 tremely rare. They are found in ants' nests. The H. scmguinipennis, 

 Say, is four-tenths of an inch long, black, with light red elytra. 



The genus Nemognatlia, Illiger, is remarkable for the elongation of 

 the outer lobe of the maxilla^, into a long setaceous proboscis, very simi- 

 lar in appearance to that of the honey-bees in the hymenopterous order. 

 These insects are found on flowers, the honey of which they probably 

 extract. We have seen a somewhat similar structure to exist in the 

 genus Chauliognathus, in the family of Telephorida? ; but here the organ 

 is soft and elastic, and capable of being retracted within the cavity of 

 the mouth. 



