DEVELOPMENT 



157 



(Fig. 220, A) of E. vittata burrows into an egg-pod of Melanoplus differ- 

 entials and eats the eggs of that grasshopper. After a molt the second 

 rva (carabidoid form) appears; this (B) is soft, with reduced legs and 

 mouth parts and less active than the triungulin. A second molt and 

 the scarabceidoid form of the second larva is assumed; the legs and mouth 

 parts are now rudimentary and the body more compact than before. 

 A third and a fourth molt occur with little change in the form of the 

 second larva, which is now in its ultimate stage (C) . After the fifth 

 molt/ however, the coarctate larva, or pseudo-pupa, appears; this (D) 

 hibernates and in spring sheds its' skin and becomes the third larva, 





FIG. 220. Stages in the hypermetamorphosis of Epicauta. A, triungulin; B, carabi- 

 doid. stage of second larva; C, ultimate stage of second larva; D, coarctate larva; E, pupa; F, 

 imago. E is species cinerea; the others are vittata. All enlarged except F. After RILEY, 

 from Trans. St. Louis Acad. Science. 



which soon transforms to a true pupa (E), from which the beetle (F) 

 shortly emerges. Thus the pupal stage is preceded by at least three 

 distinct larval stages. 



Strepsiptera, the subject of two important volumes by Dr. W. D. 

 Pierce, are all hypermetamorphic. These parasites affect almost 

 exclusively Hymenoptera and Homoptera, causing the "stylopized" 

 condition known to collectors of bees, wasps or bugs, in which the pres- 

 ence of the parasite is indicated by a flat disk-like plate (in the female 

 parasite) or a tuberculate rounded projection (male) protruding from 

 between segments of the abdomen. The male is winged but the female 

 is maggot-like and sedentary, a mere sac of eggs, often two thousand 

 or more in number, which hatch inside the body of the mother into active 

 little hexapodous thysanuriform larvae known as triungulinids. These 



