RB 
Linnean Society. 351 
- The species on which Mr. Newport has made his investigations 
are Meloé violaceus, Meloé proscurabeus and Meloé cicatricosus, all 
which he has procured at Richborough near Sandwich in Kent. ‘The 
first two of these species come forth about the middle of March, and 
the latter from ten days to a fortnight later in the season. They 
feed chiefly on the buttercup (Ranunculus acris), and one species, 
M. cicatricosus, also on the dandelion. 
When the Meloés first appear they are feeble, and have the body 
very small and contracted. In the course of a few days they become 
more active and are increased in size. They expose themselves much 
to the sun, and pair in the middle and warmest part of the day. On 
the 8th of April 1830, the author first observed a female preparing 
to deposit her eggs, and he has since had numerous opportunities of 
observing her thus occupied. She excavates a burrow, to the depth 
of about two inches, beneath the 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 
yellow-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, and fewer at each succeeding laying. In order to ascertain 
the number deposited at the first laying by Meloé proscarabeus, 
Mr. Newport removed the ovaries from a specimen that had recently 
been impregnated, and having divided one ovary into pieces counted 
the number of eggs in each under the microscope, and found that 
one ovary contained 2109 eggs ready for deposition ; so that the two 
ovaries contained the astonishing number of 4218 mature eggs, be- 
sides an almost equal number in the course of formation. 
The structure of the egg, the membranes of the shell and embryo, 
the manner in which the embryo-is liberated from the egg, the 
length of time it has remained in the egg state, and the circum- 
stances which affect its development are then minutely detailed; as 
well as the changes produced in the instinct of the unimpregnated 
female. | 
The larva of Meloé, as it comes from the egg, is a yellow, slender, 
active little hexapod, scarcely one-twelfth of an inch in length. It at- 
taches itself with great readiness to bees and flies, and clings so se- 
curely to them, that the insects are not able to remove it from their 
bodies, as was noticed in several experiments. These facts confirm 
the observations of Goedart and DeGeer, who first bred the larva 
from eggs deposited by Meloé. 
The structure of the larva is next described, and compared with 
that of the Pediculus apis of Linneus, as found on Hymenopterous 
insects, and the two are shown to be identical in every particular. 
The Meloé larva is also compared with the Pediculus Melitte of Mr. 
Kirby, with which also it agrees exactly in form and general struc- 
ture, but differs in colour, that of the latter insect being always 
black, while the larva of Meloé is yellow. From this circumstance 
