93 



being bent slightly upward, so that no part touches the sand. In 

 this position the larva rests for some ten or twelve days, when the 

 skin splits at the back of the thorax, and is quietly cast, exposing to 

 view the most delicately white pupa. The spines on the fifth abdo- 

 minal segment disappear, and their place is taken by two finger-like 

 processes, each surmounted by a brush of stiff hairs. These 

 prominences project from the sides at an angle of about sixty degrees, 

 and from each side of the first, second, third, and fourth segments 

 there springs a similar but smaller process. These five pairs support 

 the delicate pupa in the most wonderful manner, and prevent it 

 from coming into contact with the sand. 



A week after, the various organs begin to assume definite shape, 

 and a delicate colour spreads over each leg and elytron, the eyes 

 and jaws become differentiated. These colours advance in intensity, 

 until in a little less than a month the pupa begins to kick its legs 

 upward until they touch the roof of the sepulchre, it then manages 

 to turn over on to its legs, the skin splits and is cast off, revealing a 

 phantom tiger beetle, which looks like a limpid opal. In three or 

 four days it is strong enough to hold itself up, and soon the colour 

 and strength r/iature. Having placed several pupse in an artificial 

 sepulchre, I was enabled to watch all changes, until the beetle on 

 reaching maturity objected to my inquisitiveness by plastering the 

 glass over with wet sand. Most of the beetles arrived at maturity at 

 the end of August, and all remained in their sepulchres, the 

 following winter, until the approach of March and April, when they 

 commenced to climb up the vertical burrow, which they enlarged by 

 biting the hard sand away from the crown. This was always a 

 laborious task, but no insect ever gives in from hard work, and in 

 the course of a month or six weeks the mature beetle reaches the 

 surface of the heath to find itself in gorgeous apparel, and with the 

 power of flight, which it was not slow to use, soon finding a mate 

 after its kind, obeying the command "to be fruitful and multiply." 



Such is the life-history of Cicindela canipestris, our common 

 British Tiger Beetle. 



Further Notes on Triphaena comes, Hb. (Orbona, Fab.). 



Read by ^. Adkin, 'FJL.?)., on April 22,rd. 



In my notes on the genus Triphcena, Och. ("Proc," 1890-91, 

 p. 150), I briefly touched upon some of the more interesting points in 

 connection with T. comes ; but the scope available for dealing with 

 even such matters as geographical distribution and variation, in so 

 aberrant a species as the one under consideration, was inadequate 

 without unduly extending the paper, and the remarks that I then 



