NO. II LARVAE OF THE ELATERID BEETLES GLEN 93 



LUDIUS PURPUREUS (Poda) 



Elater purpureas Poda, Insecta Musei Gracensis, p. 41, 1761. 



Ludius haematodes (Fabricius), Eschscholtz, in Thon's Entomologisches 



Archiv, vol. 2, p. 34, 1829. 

 Corymbites haematodes (Fabricius), Latreille, Ann. Soc. Ent. France, vol. 3, 



p. 150, 1834. 

 Corymbites purpureus (Poda), Seidlitz, Fauna Baltica, ed. 2, p. 173, 1888. 

 Corymbites (Anostirus) purpureus (Poda), Schenkling, Coleopt. Cat. (ed. 



Junk), vol. 2, pt. 88, p. 366, 1927. 



The larva of this central European species has been described by 

 Nordlinger (1880, p. 8) and in greater detail by Beling (1883, pp. 262- 

 265), w^ho also refers to it in his later v^ork (1884, p. 203), Henrik- 

 sen's description (1911, pp. 264-265) appears to have been based 

 upon the writings of Beling and not upon a personal study of speci- 

 mens. Larvae of this species were not available for examination in 

 the present study and the notes that follow were adapted from the 

 literature referred to above. The inclusion of this species in the 

 fallax group is made on the basis of apparent similarity of habitat of 

 and structure in the larva of purpureus and those of tessellatus (Lin- 

 naeus) and castaneus (Linnaeus), as revealed in the writings of 

 Beling and Henriksen. 



According to Beling (1883, p. 265) the larvae live under the moss 

 covering the forest floor and in meadows near forests. Pupation 

 occurs in July or early August. 



The larva strongly resembles tessellatus (Linnaeus), being distin- 

 guished by the following characters of the ninth abdominal segment : 

 Near the middle of the dorsal plate, a transverse impression or groove 

 unites 2 well-separated longitudinal impressions; caudal notch boot- 

 jack-shaped, about as broad as long, only slightly narrowed posteriorly. 



Length up to 19 mm., width up to 3.0 mm. ; biconvex, but very flat, 

 tape-shaped; noticeably well supplied with long setae; dorsum dirty 

 yellow-brown shading to reddish brown, with a broad dark-brown 

 transverse band across anterior part of each segment, giving larva a 

 superficial banded appearance. Prothorax with fine sparse puncta- 

 tion; mediotergites of mesothorax and metathorax with somewhat 

 stronger punctation, especially on anterior half ; mediotergites of 

 abdominal segments with relatively coarse, dense punctures. 



LUDIUS AFFINIS (Paykull) 



Elater affinis Paykull, Fauna Svecica, vol. 3, p. 12, 1800. 

 Ludius affinis (Paykull), Eschscholtz, in Thon's Entomologisches Archiv, 

 vol. 2, p. 34, 1829. 



