MeJoida-.] HETEROMERA. 93 



constricted at some distance behind eyes, which are variable and finely 

 granulated ; antenna} 11-jointed (in our genera), inserted before the 

 eyes at the sides of the front ; thorax narrower at base than elytra, not 

 margined, prostenmni short ; elytra variable ; abdomen composed of six 

 free ventral segments ; legs long or moderately long, with distinct tibial 

 spurs; tarsi compressed, with the penultimate joint not bilobed, and 

 with the claws split ; larvae in several species assuming successively 

 several forms, " in the first of which it is a very small active Pediculus- 

 like parasite infesting bees of different genera, and is called a triunguline " 

 (Horn and Leconte). 



The family is divided into two tribes by some authors, but as Sitaris 

 seems to be in several respects a connecting link between Meloe and 

 Lytta, it seems best not to divide them too sharply. Sixteen genera 

 and about one hundred and sixty species occur in Europe, of which three 

 genera, represented by nine species, are found in Britain. 



I. Side pieces of meso- and metasternuui covered by the 

 elytra, the inflexed portion of which is very broad ; elytra 

 abbreviated and imbricate ; metasternum short .... MELOE, L. 



II. Side pieces of ineso- and metasternum not covered by 

 the elytra, the inflexed portion of which is narrow; 



unetasternuni long. 

 i. Elytra short and narrow, almost rudimentary, strongly 



divaricate SITAEIS, Latr. 



ii. Elytra long, covering abdomen, parallel-sided and not 



divaricate LYTTA, F. 



, Linne. 



This genus contains rather more than seventy species, the majority of 

 which are found in cold and temperate countries ; species have, how- 

 ever, been described from Northern Africa, Madeira, Madagascar, 

 Mexico, &c. ; they are large and conspicuous insects, with a peculiar 

 facies, and may easily be known by the crumpled-looking divaricate and 

 imbricate elytra and exposed abdomen, which is often extremely enlarged 

 in the female and contains thousands of eggs ; the antennae are thick, 

 submoniliform, and more or less strongly thickened in middle in some 

 species ; the head is large with the eyes small ; the thorax is small, 

 being often narrower than the head ; the elytra are broadly inflexed 

 over the side pieces of the abdomen, and the metasternum is short; the 

 species vary in size, the females being usually much larger than the 

 males, and the colour also is more or less variable ; they are extremely 

 sluggish in their motions. 



The transformations of Meloe are described by Thomson (Skand. Col. 

 vi. 340), and notices of the young larva have been given by many 

 authors ; Kirby described it as Pediculus melittte, Dufour as Triungu- 

 linus tricufpidatuit, and Newport published an important monograph on 

 the question of its changes, with plates, in the Transactions of the 



