282 COLEOPTERA 



CHAP. 



queutly enlarges it by additions from its own body. The 

 beautiful Insects of the genus Cryptocephcdus, which is fairly 

 well represented in Britain, belong to this division. The 

 exotic group Megalopodes is incorrectly placed in Camptosomes ; 

 the side pieces of the prothorax meet in it behind the middle 

 coxae, as they do in Khynchophora. The species of Megalopodes 

 stridulate by means of an area on the base of the meso-scutellum 

 rubbed by a ridge inside the pronotum, as in the Cerambycido?. 



iii. The division CYCLICA. includes the great majority of Chryo- 

 melidae; we have not less than 170 species in Britain. The 

 larvae live, like those of Lepidoptera, at the expense of foliage, 

 and the species frequently multiply to such an extent as to be 

 injurious. Some of them are destroyed in great numbers by 

 Hymenopterous parasites, the Braconid genus Perilitus being one 

 of the best known of these ; in some cases the parasite deposits 

 its eggs in either the larva or perfect Insect of the beetle, and 

 the metamorphoses of the parasites in the latter case are some- 

 times, if not usually, completed, the larvae emerging from the 

 living beetles for pupation. 



iv. The CRYPTOSTOMES, though comparatively few in number 

 of species, include some very remarkable beetles. There are two 

 groups, Hispides and Cassidides. The former are almost peculiar 

 to the tropics and are not represented by any species in the 

 British fauna. The head in this group is not concealed ; but in 

 the Cassidides the margins of the upper surface are more or less 

 expanded, so that the head is usually completely hidden by the 

 expansion of the pronotum. Both the groups are characterised 

 by the antennae being inserted very near together, and by the 

 short claw-joint of the feet. Hispci, is one of the most extensive 

 of. the numerous genera of Hispides, and is remarkable from the 

 imago being covered on the surface with long, sharp spines. But 

 little is known as to the metamorphosis, beyond the fact already 

 alluded to, that the larvae of several species mine the interior of 

 leaves. The larva of Hispci testacea, according to Ferris, 1 makes 

 use of the leaves of Cistus salvifolius in Southern Europe ; it is 

 broad and flat, and possessed of six short legs. The eggs are not 

 deposited by the parents inside the leaves, but are probably 

 attached to various parts of the plant. After hatching, the young 

 larva enters a leaf, and feeds on the parenchyma without rupturing 



1 Ann. Soc. Lidyc, x. 1855, p. 260. 



