The Glow- Worm and Other Beetles 



Tachytes' burrows, I found, as I have said, 

 only Schaeffer's Cerocoma and the Twelve- 

 spotted Mylabris. I undertook to rear these 

 in order to obtain their eggs. 



As a standard of comparison, the Four- 

 spotted Mylabris, of a more imposing size, 

 was added to the first two. A fourth, 

 Zonitis mutica, whom I did not need to con- 

 sult, knowing that she was not connected with 

 the matter in hand and being familiar with 

 her pseudochrysalis, completed my school 

 of egg-layers. I proposed, if possible, to 

 obtain her primary larva. Lastly, I had 

 formerly reared some Cantharides with the 

 object of observing their egg-laying. In all, 

 five species of Blister-beetles, reared in a 

 breeding-cage, have left a few lines of notes 

 in my records. 



The method of rearing is of the simplest. 

 Each species is placed under a large wire- 

 gauze dome standing in a basin filled with 

 earth. In the middle of the enclosure is a 

 bottle full of water, in which the food soaks 

 and keeps fresh. For the Cantharides, this 

 is a bundle of ash-twigs; for the Four-spotted 

 Mylabris, a bunch of bindweed (Convolvus 

 arvensis} or psoralea (P. bituminosa), of 

 which the insect nibbles only the corollae. 

 For the Twelve-spotted Mylabris, I provide 

 164 



