186^ Prof. J. C. Schjodte on the Classification 



larvae of that division group themselves I'ound two, and only 

 two, entirely different types — that of Buprestis and that of 

 Elater, the former burrowing in different parts of plants and 

 being phytophagous, the latter being blood-suckers or living on 

 vegetable juices. In both divisions we meet with modifications 

 of the type analogous to those met with in all other natural 

 divisions of Coleoptera, — their body being more or less hard 

 or quite soft, the buccal organs, the organs of move- 

 ment, the limbs, the point of the abdomen and the anal 

 segment more or less developed — all in accordance with the 

 occurrence and quality of the food. The larva of Melasis thus 

 belongs to the Elater-type, but is modified for the purpose of 

 hunting xylophagous larvse living in hard wood. In the larva of 

 Fornax the mouth appears, from the description of Coquerel (Ann. 

 de la Soc. Ent. de Fr. ser.3. iv. pp. 511-516, pi. 15. fig. '6j, I, m), 

 to be still more modified than that of Melasis in the direction of 

 the organization met with in such larvse of Antliata as live on 

 prey in galleries in wood, i. e. in those larvse of Laphria which 

 suck the larvse of Buprestidse. 



These larvse of Antliata correspond, within their own order, 

 exactly to the larvse of Melasis and Fornax in Coleoptera, the re- 

 lation in point of structure between the former and the phyto- 

 phagous larvse of Antliata being exactly the same as that between 

 the Coleopterous larvse in question and those of Buprestidse. 

 That Coquerel failed to discover the opening of the mouth in 

 the larva of Fornax can have been caused only by the fact that 

 it merely possesses a small orifice for sucking blood, whereas he 

 expected to find a large cavity of the mouth, supposing as he 

 did that the larva burrowed in timber and fed on wood. La- 

 cordaire, who also supposed that it "fed on wood" and con- 

 structed galleries, though only in decaying wood, is likewise 

 astonished at the want of a mouth (Gen. des Coleopt. iv. p. 565). 



I have on purpose limited the preceding inquiry into the 

 larvse of Buprestidse and Elateridse to what was absolutely ne- 

 cessary for the attainment of my aim, which was nothing more 

 than to clear away the obstacles which that interpretation of 

 their structure which has hitherto prevailed has placed in the way 

 of that view of their mutual relationship which will be deve- 

 loped in the sequel. I am in possession of very rich materials 

 for the illustration of these larvse in detail ; but I reserve that 

 for the continuation of my papers on the larvse of Coleoptera, 

 published in the ' Naturhistorisk Tidsskrift.' 



V. 



For a long time after the publication of Audouin^s well-known 

 treatise on the thorax of Insects, in which he had distinguished 



