19211 



Wheeler: Some Social Beetles 



57 



FIG 7. ORYZAEPHILUS SURINAMENSIS L, 



Beetle, pupa and larva, showing the teeth on the sides of the pronotum 

 of the beetle and tubercles of the pupa in which they are formed. 

 Courtesy of the Federal Bureau of Entomology. 



larvae feed on the nutritive parenchyma. Its amber colored 

 cells in the intestines may be distinctly seen through the clear 

 integument and body cavity of the larvje. The colony, which is 

 now in its second stage consists of the pair of parent beetles, 

 about one or two dozen larvae, mostly immature and in most 

 cases of about the same number of young or half-grown coccids. 



When mature the larvae make brown cocoons and pupate 

 in them, as will be described in detail below. These are formed 

 singly and the beetles emerging from them remain in the petiole 

 with their parents and larval brothers and sisters, mate and 

 produce eggs and larvae in turn, thus leading to the third ot' 

 climax stage of the colony, which may eventually consist of 

 several dozen beetles of both sexes and numerous larvae and 

 pupae in all stages of development. The coccids also increase 

 in number, so that the cavity of the petiole sometimes becomes 

 so crowded that its inmates must find their movements greatly 

 impeded. In the meantime the old and exhausted beetles gradu- 

 ally die off and their bodies are consigned to the refuse accumu- 



