34 THE FERTILISATION OF FLOWERS. [PART II. 
besides showing the two stages exemplified in the Curculionidae, 
possess species which in the perfect state are either mainly or 
exclusively confined to flowers, either feeding on honey (eg. 
Clythra scopolina), or on the soft parts of the flower (e.g, 
Cryptocephalus sericeus). But even in the Chrysomelide, the 
anthophilous species make only a small part of the whole family. 
The same holds good for the Lamellicornia, the Linnzan genera 
Melolontha and Cetonia, whose anthophilous species in part feed — 
upon leaves of Umbellifers, occasionally resorting to flowers, where 
they feed on all the soft parts indiscriminately (Phyllopertha 
horticola), and in part subsist on a floral diet, either chiefly 
(Hoplia philanthus, Cetonia) or exclusively (Zrichius fasciatus). 
Of the Cerambycide and Llateride, at least half of our native 
species resort to flowers, some only incidentally (Rhagium, 
Clytus arietis, Diacanthus cneus), but the greater number 
exclusively. Finally, among the Mordellide, Cdemeride, 
Malachiide, etc., whole species in the perfect state depend , 
entirely on a floral diet. 
The importance of Coleoptera in fertilisation is not great 
enough to make it worth while to compare closely all the 
anthophilous species, genera, and families with their nearest 
allies among non-anthophilous forms, in order to trace out 
adaptive modifications. To disprove the teleological hypothesis 
of predestination,—that certain insects are fore-ordained for 
certain flowers and specially organised thereto,—it is enough, 
since a gradual transition towards a floral diet has been shown — 
to exist in very various families, to show by one example how the 
structural adaptations appear also in the most gradual manner. 
We take, as an instance, the Cerambycide. 
One of the chief groups into. which, according to Westwood,” 
this family is divided, viz. the Lepturidw, comprehending our 
native genera Rhamnusium, Rhagiwm, Toxotus, Pachyta, Strangalia, 
Leptura, and Grammoptera, is exclusively restricted in the perfect 
state, for the great majority of its species,’to a floral diet; 
Rhamnusium alone, to my knowledge, is never found on flowers, 
but on willows and poplars; the species of Rhagiwm occur 
chiefly on fallen wood, but occasionally on flowers; the specie, 
1 Helodes phellandrii, for example, lives as a larva in the hollow stems, and some- 
times as a beetle on the flowers of Phellandrium aquaticum ; Cassida murrea lives 
in the larval state on the leaves of Pulicaria dysenterica, and sometimes as a beetle 
on the flowers of the same plant. Crioceris 12punetata lives in the larval state on 
Asparagus, and in the perfect state sometimes feeds on the honey of Umbellifers, 
* Introduction to the Modern Classification of Insects (1839-40). 
