Miscellaneous. 75 



was obliged to repeat these artificial breedings for myself. My 

 experiments succeeded. 



I tben made excavations with the purpose of collecting the pseudo- 

 chrysalis, the form under which the Gantharis winters. I soon found 

 pseudochrysalides very like those of which 1 was in search, but which, 

 on exclusion, furnished me with Cerocoma Schreheri, a vesicant beetle, 

 the mode of development of which was also unknown. I had the 

 honour to communicate these results to the Academy at its meeting 

 of 21st July, 1884. 



At the end of that j^ear, in the beginning of December, I was 

 enabled by the liberality of the Municipal Council to undertake 

 another journey into the departments of Yaucluse and Gard. I 

 returned to Aramon, when I had found the Cerocoma. I was 

 attracted to that place by the exceptional abundance of the Cantha- 

 rides. This locality is near Avignon, Some sandhills, which were 

 worked some years ago and then abandoned, are frequented by 

 numerous Hymenoptera, and form an excellent investigation-ground. 



In the same mound in which I had found the Cerocoma, I col- 

 lected, at a depth of more than 1 metre in the wall, some pseudo- 

 chrysalides of large size and of a pale-straw colour, which I noticed 

 in my book of observations as resembling in their various characters 

 those which I had obtained in my artificial rearings. These pseudo- 

 chrysalides were found in the midst of an innumerable quantity of 

 cells of a Hymenopteron which 1 was able to determine, Colletes 

 signata, and in the vicinity of cells of three or four times the size of 

 another species of CoUetes, the exclusion of which I have not yet 

 obtained. 



On my return to Paris with my booty I had the mortification to 

 see a certain number of my pseudochrysalides gradually wither 

 away, so that in the month of May I had only two left in good con- 

 dition. At this period no appreciable change had taken place, when, 

 on the 12th May, the integument of one of my pseudochrysalides 

 split upon the back, and I saw issue from it a larva (the third larva 

 of the Yesicantia), which, after three or four days of activity, fell 

 into complete torpor. On the 26th May my larva changed into a 

 pupa, and I could then, from the characters of the antennse, head, 

 and prothorax, assure myself that this time I was not in presence 

 of the Cerocoma, and my anxiety became extreme. I compared it 

 with the pupse of Cantharides which I had artificially reared and 

 preserved ; there seemed to me to be no difference between the two 

 forms. The following are the successive modifications that I ol>- 

 served. 



The eyes acquire a brown and then a black tint ; by degrees the 

 mandibles become coloured ; a very slight iridescent tint appears 

 upon the head and then upon the prothorax. On the 5th of June 

 the forehead and the articulations of the legs were coloured brown. 

 The high temperature of the last few days assisting,- the transforma- 

 tion was soon complete ; the iridescent coloration gave place to a 

 brown tinge and then to green, and I found myself in presence of a 

 Cantharis. The individual is a male. 



To sum up, I found the Cantharis in the midst of the cells of 



