BEETLES 163 



sula and the Great Sunda Islands, Borneo, Java, and 

 Sumatra. The first specimens that reached Europe 

 excited the wonder of all entomologists, and gave 

 rise to many discussions on the true affinities of the 

 species. In the middle of the last century the Paris 

 Museum actually paid 1,000 francs for a single speci- 

 men of Mormolyce phyllodes, a disbursement which sub- 

 sequently they must have regretted, for the beetle is by 

 no means uncommon, and recently has been taken 

 by the hundred. 



The adults are generally found resting on the huge 

 Polyponis fungi, which project from the trunks of de- 

 caying trees. The larvae are found inside lenticular 

 chambers, which have been excavated within the woody 

 tissue of the fungus. These chambers communicate 

 with the outside world by a small orifice situated on 

 the under side of the fungus. There may be more 

 than one chamber in a fungus, but 1 have never found 

 more than one larva in a chamber. The larva, as it 

 grows, continues to increase the size of the chamber, 

 and when two chambers are placed close together it 

 sometimes happens that the dividing wall is broken 

 down by one of the larvae, and then it appears as if 

 two larvae lived together in a single cell. The grubs 

 feed on such insects as enter by the hole leading 

 into their chamber, but occasionally on each other. 

 Oviposition has never been observed, but it is prob- 

 able that the female beetle bores a hole in the 

 fungus and deposits her egg therein, otherwise the 

 egg would fall to the ground ; for in every fungus 

 that I have examined the one and only entrance 

 to the larval chamber is on the under surface of the 

 fungus. 



