336 



CLASS INSECTA. 



French naturalists, who had already given proofs of their 

 talents — M. Desmarest, Professor at the Veterinary School 

 at Alfort, and M. Victor Audouin ; this last had received, 

 from the author of this discovery, some larvae in a living 

 state. They were found in the interior of the shell Helix 

 nemoralis of Linnaeus. M. Mielzinsky had made them 

 known as well as the female, when she had attained the last 

 state of transformation, the only sort of individuals which he 

 had obtained in the perfect state. But he was deceived in 

 considering as nymphs, the larvae arrived at their full growth, 

 and which pass the winter in the interior of these shells. 

 Under this form these insects have a sufficient resemblance to 

 the larvae of our lampyris, but the sides of their abdomen 

 present a range of conical mammellae, and two series of tufts 

 of hairs, placed on other mammellae, or dermic elongations. 

 The posterior extremity of the body is forked, and the anus 

 assists the animal in progression. It devours, and that 

 quickly, the natural inhabitant of the shell, and hence is 

 derived its generic name of Cochleoctonus, given to this 

 insect by this naturalist. M. Desmarest presumed, with 

 reason, that since these larvae were common enough in the 

 neighbourhood of Genoa, they might also be discovered in 

 the environs of Paris. Assisted by his pupils, he did, in 

 fact, procure a great number of these individuals, which 

 enabled him to give a complete history of this insect, and to 

 discover that the individuals in a perfect state, described by 

 INI. Mielzinsky, were females of the Drilus subflavus, or 

 pcmachejaunatre of Geoffroy (I. 1, 2, Oliv. Col. II. 23, 1.), 

 whose body is about three lines in length, black, with the 

 elytra yellowish. The female is almost three times as large, 

 of an orange or reddish yellow, and resembles those of lam- 

 pyris, but withcfut being phosphorescent. M. Audouin has 

 published the anatomy of it. He has remarked that the old 

 skin of the larva exactly stops the entrance of the shell, and 



