I 458 Clje CrcaStirw of Batumi f& 



I OIL BEETLE. (Meloe.) A genus of ! into pieces, counted the number of eggs in 

 Coleopterous insects, belonging to the tribe j each under the microscope, and found that 

 i of Vesicatory Beetles, whose economy until I one ovary contained 2109 eggs ready for de- 

 i lately has remained one of the most difficult | position; so that the two ovaries contained 

 unsolved problems in the natural history of [ the astonishing number of 4218 niature eggs, 



I the A rticnlata. At a meeting of the Lin- 

 nscan Society of London, Nov. 18. 1845, the 

 history, development, and general economy 

 of this insect, formed the subject of a memoir 



by G.Newport, Esq., F. R. S., and is reported i pod, scarcely one-twelfth of an inch in 

 in their ' Proceedings.' The writer observes I length. It attaches itself with great readi- 



besides an almost equal number in the course 

 of formation. 



The larva of 3feloK, as it comes from the 

 egg, is a yellow, slender, active little hexa- 



that many naturalists, more particularly 

 Gocdart, Frisch, and De Geer, have well de- 

 eribed the perfect insect, and have even 



ness to bees and flies, and clings so securely 

 to them, that the insects are not able to re- 

 move it from their bodies, as was noticed in 



given detailed observations on the oviposi- i several experiments. These facts confirm 

 tion of the female and the early stage of the | the observations of Gcedart and De Geer, 

 larva, but they have invariably failed to ! who first bred the larva from eggs deposited 

 carry their inquiries further, and have been j by MeloS. The structure of the larva is next 

 quite unacquainted with the adult larva and described, and compared with that of the 

 the nymph, as well as with the early stage , Pediculus apis of Linnaeus, as found on Hy- 

 of the'imago. This deficiency in our know- menopterous insects, and the two are shown 

 ledge of the history of these common insects to be identical in every particular. The 

 is to be attributed principally to the ano- I Meloe larva is also compared with the Pedi- 

 malous habits of the insect in its earliest cuhis Nelittae of Mr. Kirby, with which also 

 stages, and to the little credit that has been it agrees exactly in form and general struc- 

 given to the statements of former observers. ; ture, but differs in colour, that of the latter 



Mr. Newport commenced his observations insect being always black, while the larva 

 on the habits of Meloe about fifteen years of Meloe is yellow. From this circumstance 

 ago ; but although he succeeded at that time the author concludes that Mr. Kirby's insect 

 in rearing the larva from the egg, as had is the larva of another genus of the Bame 

 been done by Gcedart and De Geer, and soon family. 



afterwards obtained the full-grown larva, ! The habits of the larva of McloS are then 

 the nymph, and the imago, before it left its investigated, and the effects produced on it 

 cell, he has never been able to obtain the by exposure to light are minutely detailed, 

 larva in a stage intermediate between its When light was totally excluded, the larvse 

 earliest and its full-grown condition. The remained perfectly quiet for several days ; 

 species on which Mr. Newport made his in- but the instant light was admitted they were 

 vestigations are Meloe violaceus, MeJob' pro' in motio_n, travelling rapidly in a direction 

 scarubceus, and McloS cicatricosus, all which towards it. The experiments were made by 

 he procured at Richborough, near Sandwich, enclosing larvaj in a phial, which was in- 

 in Kent. The first two of these species come verted and turned in opposite directions, 

 forth about the middle of March, and the When the phial was placed perpendicularly 

 latter from ten days to a fortnight later in they invariably ascended to the top, and 

 the season. They feed chiefly on the but- when placed in a horizontal direction they 

 tercup (Ranunculus acris}, and one species, always ran to that end which was nearest 

 M. cicatricosus, also on the dandelion. | the light, even when the stopper around 



When the Melons first appear they are ! which they had been lyirg was removed to 

 feeble, and have the body very small and : allow of their escape. This influence of 

 contracted. In the course of a few days they light Mr. Newport conceives may be that 

 become more active and are increased in which induces them to ascend the yellow 

 size. They expose themselves much to the flowers of the dandelion and buttercup pre- 

 sun, and pair in the middle and warmest ; paratory to their attaching themselves to 

 part of the day. On the 8th of April, 1830, j bees that alight on the flowers to collect 

 the author first observed a female preparing pollen, and which then carry them into their 

 to deposit her eggs, and he has since had nests. This seems to be the object of their 

 numerous opportunities of observing her j attacking the bees, to be carried to the nest, 

 thus occupied. She excavates a burrow, to I where they are to reside as parasites, and 

 the depth of about two inches, beneath the subsist on the food stored up for the bee- 



roots of grass, in a dry soil exposed to the 

 sun, usually at the side of a foot-path. Into 

 this burrow she passes her body backwards, 

 and having deposited a large packet of yel- 

 low-coloured cylindrical eggs, she closes up 

 the burrow with earth and begins again to 

 feed. Each female deposits eggs from three 

 to four times during the season, at intervals 

 of from one to two or three weeks. The 

 greatest number are deposited at the first 

 laying. In order to ascertain the number 

 deposited at the first laying by Meloe pro- 

 scarabieus, Mr. Newport removed the ovaries 

 from a specimen that had recently been im- 

 pregnated, and having divided one ovary 



larva, and not to prey on the bee itself. 



The full-grown larva of Meloe cicatricosus 

 is then described, and also the nymph and 

 the imago. The author had found the insect 

 in those stages in the nests of Anthophora, 

 retusa; but he had not succeeded in his 

 attempts to rear the young larva of M. vio- 

 laceus and M. proscarabceus in the nests 

 of that insect. He concludes, therefore, 

 that these species inhabit the nests of some 

 other bees. In the stage between the very 

 and the full-grown period the larva 

 :ved to be active and retain its six 

 scaly feet, and to feed on the food prepared 

 for the you'^g bee. In its full-grown state 



young i 

 is belie 



