Cerocomae, Mylabres and Zonites 



same distribution of the stigmata. I was 

 therefore firmly convinced that the parasite 

 of the Mantis-hunters could only be a 

 Meloid. 



Let us also record the description of the 

 strange larva found devouring the heap of 

 Mantes in the burrows of the Tachytes. It 

 is naked, blind, white, soft and sharply 

 curved. Its general appearance suggests the 

 larva of some Weevil. I should be even 

 more accurate if I compared it with the 

 secondary larva of Meloe cicatricosus, of 

 which I once published a drawing in the 

 Annales des sciences naturelles. 1 If we re- 

 duce the dimensions considerably, we shall 

 have something very like the parasite of the 

 Tachytes. 



The head is large, faintly tinged with red. 

 The mandibles are strong, bent into a pointed 

 hook, black at the tip and a fiery red at the 

 base. The antennae are very short, inserted 

 close to the root of the mandibles. I count 

 three joints: the first thick and globular, the 

 other two cylindrical, the second of these cut 

 short abruptly. There are twelve segments, 

 apart from the head, divided by fairly 



1 It was his essays in this periodical, on the metamor- 

 phoses of the Sitares and Oil-beetles, that procured Fabre 

 his first reputation as an entomologist. Translator's 

 Note. 



149 



