COLEOl'TERA. 437 



versal, and as well as the scutel, pectus and one pair of legs red- 

 dish; head, elytra and abdomen black; the two last annul! of 

 the body yellowish; wings to both sexes *. 

 In our second division of the Lamjivrides, the antennae are very 

 remote at base ; the head is neither prolonged nor narrowed ante- 

 riorly in the form of a snout, and the eyes are of an ordinaiy size in 

 both sexes. 



Drilus, Oliv. — Ptilinus, Geoff. Fab. 



The males are winged, and the inner side of the antennae, from 

 the fourth joint, is prolonged like the tooth of a comb. Those of 

 the femnles are shorter, somewhat perfoliaceous and slightly ser- 

 rated. The maxillary palpi in both sexes are thicker towards the 

 end, and terminate in a point. The inner side of the mandibles pre- 

 sents a tooth. 



The female of the species, which is the type of the genus, and 

 whose male is tolerably common, remained unknown until lately, as 

 Avell as the metamorphoses of both sexes. Certain observations 

 made at Geneva, by Count Mielzinsky, on the larva of this Insect 

 and the perfect female, excited the attention of two able French na- 

 turalists, MM. Desmarest and Victor Audouin. The latter had 

 received from the author of the discovery several living larvae, 

 which were found in the shell of a Helix nemoralis of Linnaeus, and 

 which together with the perfect female, the only sex he had obtained 

 in that state, were described by him. But he was mistaken in con- 

 sidering as pupae, larvae which had attained their full growth, and 

 which pass the Avinter in the interior of these shells. In this 

 state, these Insects are tolerably similar to the larvae of the Euro- 

 pean Lampyrides, but there are a range of conical mammillae on 

 each side of their abdomen, and two series of hairy tufts on other 

 elevations of the same nature. The posterior extremity of the body 

 is forked, and the anus is used by the animal as a means of progres- 

 sion. It soon devours the legitimate owner of the shell, Avhence the 

 generic appellation of Cochleoctonus, given to this Insect by the 

 naturalist above mentioned. M. Desmarest presuming that as 

 these larvae Avere common in the neighbourhood of Geneva, they 

 might also be found in the vicinity of Paris, by the aid of his pupils 

 soon procured a number of them, which enabled him to give a com- 

 plete history of the Insect, and to ascertain that the individuals in 

 their perfect state, described by Mielzinsky, were the females of the 

 Drile jaundtre or the Panache jaune, Geoff., I, 1,2; Oliv,, Col. II, 

 23, 1, 1, the body of which is about three lines long, black, with 

 yellowish elytra. The female is nearly thrice as large, is of an 

 orange or reddish yellow, and resembles that of a Lampyris, but 

 without its phosphorescence. M. Audouin has published its ana- 

 tomy, and observed that the exuviae of the larva exactly close the 

 aperture of the shell, forming a sort of operculum. While the ani- 

 mal is in its larva state, it remains at the bottom of its domicil, and 

 so placed, that the posterior extremity of its body faces the opening ; 



* See Fabricius, and Olivier, Col. II, No. 28. 



