STATES OF INsEcTS. (Larva.) 141 
furnished with claws. This circumstance, in conjunction 
with the greater number of prolegs, except in the case 
of Lyda, will always serve as a mark to distinguish these 
fausses chenilles, as the French call the larvae of saw-flies, 
from true caterpillars. The dorsal prolegs of a species of 
Cynips described by Reaumur have been before noticed. 
Coleoptera.— The larvee of insects of this order are so 
little known or attended to, that no very accurate gene- 
ralization of them in this respect is practicable. Many of 
them, in addition to their six horny legs, have a proleg 
at the anus; which in many cases appears to be the last 
segment of the abdomen, forming an obtuse angle with 
the remainder of it, so as to support that part of the 
body, and prevent it from trailing ; and in some instances, 
as in Chrysomela Populi, a common beetle, secreting 
a slimy matter to fix itself*. In the larve: of Staphyli- 
nide this proleg is very long and cylindrical; in that of 
Cicindela it is shorter, and in shape a truncated cone 
rather compressed ; it is very short, also, in those of the 
Silphe that I have seen. In the wire-worm (Elater Sege- 
tum) it is a minute retractile tubercle, placed in a nearly 
semi-circular space, shut in by the last dorsal segment, 
which becomes also ventral at the anus. This space is in 
fact the last ventral segment. ‘This seems characteristic 
of the genus. From the underside of the body of the 
common meal-worm (Tenebrio Molitor), at the junction 
of the two last segments, when the animal walks, there 
issues a fleshy part, furnished below with two rather hard, 
long, and moveable pediform pieces, which the animal 
uses in walking*. In the larva of another beetle, whose 
* De Geer vy. 288. » Ibid. iv. 157. 
© Thid. y. 36. ¢. ii. fi 11. 
