78 INSECTA. 



Pediculwi melittcs, and I was formerly of his opinion. M. 

 Walckenaer, in his " Memoire povir servir a I'Histoire Naturelle 

 des Abcilles Solitaires du genre Halicte," has brought forward 

 all the facts relative to this subject of controversy, I also 

 have since spoken of it in the article Meloe of the Nouv. Diet. 

 d'Hist. Naturelle. The same insect is the type of the genus 

 Triongidin of M. Leon Dufour — Ann. des Sc' Nat., XIII, ix., 

 B — already noticed in our expose of tlie Parasita. But the 

 late researches of MM. Lepeletier and Serville, who by 

 isolating several females have obtained larvae from their eggs 

 exactly similar to those described by De Gcer, or Triongulins, 

 compel us to believe that they are those of Meloes. We know 

 that several Heteromera deposit their ova in the nests of various 

 Bees. Is it not possible tliat this may be the fact with respect 

 to the Meloes, and that their larvjie live on these Bees, until the 

 period at which these hymenoptera insure the existence of their 

 young ones, and that also of their enemies, which then establish 

 themselves in the provisioned cells ? 



M. majaJis, Oliv. Panz. ; L?ach, Ibid., I, 2. The antennae 

 regular and almost similar in both sexes ; body bronze and cu- 

 preous-red mixed ; head and thorax deeply punctured ; elytra 

 scabrous; cupreous and transverse bands on the abdomen. It 

 had been considered as the M. majalis of Linnueus, a species 

 which is found in Spain and Roussillon *. 

 All the Heteromera of the following subgenera are furnished with 

 wings, and their elytra, as usual, extend longitudinally over the ab- 

 domen. 



Of these subgenera we will first describe those in which the elytra 

 are not abruptly subulate near their posterior extremity, and where 

 they completely cover their wings. In 



Tetraonyx, Lat. — Apalus, Fab. — Lytta, Klilg., 



The maxillse, as in Cantharis and Zonitis, are not prolonged and 

 terminated by a silky thread, and curved inferiorly. The penidtimate 

 joint of the tarsi is emarginated or almost bilobate, and the thorax 

 forms a transveise square. These Insects are closely related to the 

 Cantharides, and are peculiar to the western continent f . 



Cantharis, Geoff. ONv, — Meloe, Lin. — Lytta, Fab. 



All the joints of the tarsi entire, and the thorax almost ovoid, 

 slightly elongated, narrowed anteriorly and truncated posteriorly, 

 by Avhich this subgenus is distinguished from the preceding one. 

 The second joint of the antennae is much shorter than the following 

 one, and the last of the maxillary palpi is evidenty larger than those 



* For the other species, see Leach, Monog., cit., that of Meyer Fabricius, Olivier, 

 &c. The M. marginata, Fab., is a G.ilenica. 



t Lat., Zool., and Anat., of Messrs. Humboldt and Bonpland, pi. xvi, 7; — 

 Ap'Jm quadnmacidatus, Fab. ; Lytta bimiculata, Kliig, Spec. Entom. Brasil., 

 XLI, 10 ; — Lytta iex-guttata, Klii^j ; — Lytta crassi, ejusd., XLI, 12. 



