COLEOPTERA. 491 



noxious qualities, and which, according- to them, killed the Oxen that 

 accidentally swallowed them while grazing. 



M. prosmrahaRUs, L. ; Leach, Lin. Trans., XI, vi, 6, 7. About 

 an inch long; glossy-black, and densely punctured; sides of the 

 head and thorax, and the antennae and legs, verging on violet; 

 elytra finely rugose; middle of the antennge of the male dilated 

 and forming a curve. 



According to De Geer, the females deposit in the earth a 

 great number of eggs in piles. The larvae have six feet and two 

 filaments at the posterior extremity of their body; they attach 

 themselves to Flies, whose juices they suck. M. Kirby thinks 

 that it is an apterous or parasitical Insect, which he calls 

 the Pediculus melittae, and I was formerly of his opinion. M. 

 Walckenaer, in his " Memoire pour servir a I'Histoire Natu- 

 relle des Abeilles Solitaires du genre Halicte," has brought 

 forward all the facts relative to this subject of controversy. I 

 also have since spoken of it in the article Meloe of the Nouv. 

 Diet. d'Hist. Naturelle. The same Insect is the f^ype of the 

 genus Triongulin of M. Leon Dufour — Ann. des Sc. Nat., XIII, 

 ix, B — already noticed in our expose of the Parasita. But the 

 late researches of Messrs Lepeletier and Serville, who by 

 isolating several females have obtained larvse from their eggs 

 exactly similar to those described by De Geer, or Triongulins, 

 compel us to believe that they are those of Meloes. We know 

 that several Heteromera deposit their ova in the nests of various 

 Bees. Is it not possible that this may be the fact with respect 

 to the Meloes, and that their larvae live on these Bees, until the 

 period at which these hymenoptera insure the existence of their 

 young ones, and that also of their enemies, which then establish 

 themselves in the provisioned cells ? 



M. majalis, Oliv. Panz.; Leach, Ibid., I, 2. The antennae 

 regular and almost similar in both sexes; body bronze and cu- 

 preous-red mixed; head and thorax deeply punctured; elytra 

 scabrous; cupreous and transverse bands on the abdomen. It 

 had been considered as the M. majalis of Linnaeus, a species 

 which is found in Spain and Roussillon(l). 

 All the Heteromera of the following subgenera are furnished with 

 wings, and their elytra, as usual, extend longitudinally over the ab- 

 domen. 



Of these subgenera we will first describe those in which the elytra 



(1) For the other species, see Leach, Monog., cit., that of Meyer, F.ibricius, 

 Olivier, &.c. The M. marginafa, Fab , is a Galenica. 



