Wings in the Coleoptera. 109 
be connected with this. The membranous hind wings of 
beetles, which serve for flight, lie, as is well known, concealed 
beneath the firm horny fore wings, the so-called elytra. For 
the purpose of flight the elytra are raised and the folded hind 
wings extended, so as often to exceed the former in length. 
But many beetles do not fly at all. In these we find the 
hind wings more or less aborted or entirely deficient. This 
phenomenon occurs with especial frequency among the Cara- 
bide, Melasomata, and Curculionide, and also, although less 
frequently, among the Ptinide. 
Thus, for example, while in Melolontha vulgaris, Fab., the 
length of the body without the antenne amounts to 0°03, 
that of the fore wing to 0:02, and that of the hind wing to 
0°03 metre, these measurements in Pterostichus vulgaris, 
Linn., are as 0°017: 0°01: 0°004, and in Niptus hololeucus, 
Cam., as 0-004: 0:0025:0-000. The last two species do 
not fly at all, as the hind wings are either so small that they 
cannot support the body or entirely wanting. 
As the wings are already indicated in the larva, I was in- 
clined to think that, in one or other of the species entirely 
destitute of wings, traces of these organs would occur, at least 
in the larval or the pupal stage. For four years my labours 
were in vain, and it is only quite recently that I succeeded in 
demonstrating the rudimentary hind wings in the larve and 
pupe of Niptus hololeucus, Cam., in which both sexes are 
apterous, 2. ¢. destitute of hind wings. 
This pretty little beetle has come to us from Asia Minor, 
and occurs frequently in Berlin in houses from July to Sep- 
tember. It likes to conceal itself among linen and woollen 
stuffs. M. Kliger, who was kind enough to furnish me with 
material, found the perfect beetle every year in a linen-press 
among the accumulated linen. M. Wachtler, a merchant 
here, to whom I am also indebted for a great number of the 
animals, found them in bales of stuffs. He thinks that they 
seek these hiding-places, not to lay their eggs there, but to 
protect themselves from the cold; he did not observe even the 
smallest quantity of frass upon the stuffs. 
After several unsuccessful attempts, I succeeded in rearing 
the beetles in bran. For this purpose I placed the animals, 
in the autumn, in a vessel filled with bran. Here they 
deposited their eggs; and at the end of March the larva 
were full-grown. They are 0:006 metre long, white with a 
few scattered brown hairs, and have the form of the grub of 
the cockchafer. 
The rudiments of the fore wings appear in the half-grown 
larva, on the two sides of the mesothorax, as crescentiform 
