BEETLES 183 



they have discarded the chain of moults, are also con- 

 spicuous enough, because they, too, are found in little 

 clumps. The great black shields of Prioptera and Lacco- 

 ptera render their owners very plain to see on the leaves 

 of their food-plant, and in addition Prioptera has the 

 habit, both in the larval and pupal stages, of bunching 

 together, and then the groups of larvae look like masses 

 of black fungoid growth. As is so often the case, a 

 protective device can play many parts, and in Prioptera 

 8-punctata I believe that the shield serves to keep off* 

 parasites, perhaps defends the larva from too-scorching 

 heat, renders the creature a conspicuous object, warn- 

 ing off prospective foes, and even protects it from other 

 foes by its resemblance to a fungus. 



The Brenthidce are closely related to the true Weevils, 

 or Curculionidce, and occur in considerable numbers in 

 the Oriental tropics. Very little is known about their 

 habits or life-histories, but the majority of species in 

 their larval stages bore in wood, and some adults live 

 in wood all their lives. Some of these forms are very 

 remarkably modified for boring habits, the body being 

 grooved or compressed in places, allowing the limbs to 

 fit closely against its sides and so not to break the 

 perfectly cylindrical outline. Some of the species are 

 much infested with mites, which cluster round the legs 

 and on the long prothorax. I was much interested to 

 find one day a species with a deep channel running 

 along the greater length of the prothorax crammed with 

 little mites. A good many species of Brenthidce have 

 shallow open grooves along the prothorax, but in this 

 species the groove is deep, and, though wide, is almost 

 completely roofed in, only a narrow slit putting it into 

 communication with the exterior. This modification of 



