The Glow- Worm and Other Beetles 



Mylabris are straw coloured and of an elon- 

 gated oval, a trifle fuller at one end 

 than at the other. Length, two millimetres; 

 width, a little under one millimetre. 1 



Of all the batches of eggs collected, one 

 alone hatched. The rest were probably 

 sterile, a suspicion corroborated by the lack 

 of pairing in the breeding-cage. Laid at the 

 end of July, the eggs of the Twelve-spotted 

 Mylabris began to hatch on the 5th of Sep- 

 tember. The primary larva of this Meloid 

 is still unknown, so far as I am aware; and 

 I shall describe it in detail. It will be the 

 starting-point of a chapter which perhaps 

 will give us some fresh sidelights upon the 

 history of the hypermetamorphosis. 



The larva is nearly 2 millimetres long. 2 

 Coming out of a good-sized egg, it is en- 

 dowed with greater vigour than the larvae 

 of the Sitares and Oil-beetles. The head is 

 large, rounded, slightly wider than the pro- 

 thorax and of a rather brighter red. Man- 

 dibles powerful, sharp, curved, with the ends 

 crossing, of the same colour as the head, 

 darker at the tips. Eyes black, prominent, 

 globular, very distinct. Antennae fairly long, 



1 .078 x .039 inch. Translator's Note. 

 2 .078 inch. Translators' Note. 

 174 



