6 MANDIBULATA. COLEOPTERA. 



species may occur when the entomological productions of Britain 

 are more satisfactorily ascertained, as no less than three of the sub- 

 joined have been added to our Fauna since the appearance of the 

 Entomologia Britannica by Marsham in 1802 ! 



Interesting accounts of the metamorphoses of a species of this 

 genus are given by Geoffroy, Desmarest, and Latreille. The larvae 

 are long, cylindric, soft, whitish, and furnished with six brown scaly 

 feet : the head and first joint of the body are metallic-green above, 

 and brown beneath. The head is extremely large, trapeziform, 

 with six * very visible smooth black eyes, the four largest of which 

 are placed on the upper and posterior parts of the head, and the others 

 on the sides. They have two very long and sharp, nearly vertical, 

 mandibles, armed on their inner base with a strong tooth : the maxillae 

 are also very long. The three first joints of the body are without stig- 

 mata : the first is broader than the head, the second and third much 

 narrower,. the fourth and fifth are a trifle broader than the second; 

 the eighth is considerably larger and more expanded than the others, 

 and is furnished above with two fleshy tubercles, which are thickly 

 clothed with reddish hairs, and each armed in the middle with a 

 recurved horny spine : the size and structure of the joint last 

 mentioned (the eighth) give to the form of the larvae that of the 

 letter Z : the last joint of the body is very small : the legs are 

 short and weak : the tarsi have only two joints, the terminal one 

 bearing two small claws. 



These larvse construct their retreats to the depth of eighteen 

 inches, the entrance to them being perpendicular, and larger in 

 diameter than their body. In excavating this canal, which is of a 

 cylindrical form, they employ their mandibles and legs : they clear 

 away the particles of sand, &c. by placing them on their broad head, 

 and then climb up gradually to the surface, in which they are as- 

 sisted by their dorsal appendages, till they reach the top, when they 

 throw off their load. When they have completed their habitation 

 (which is frequently a work of much difficulty, and which from the 

 nature of the soil they are sometimes compelled to abandon, and to 

 construct in a fresh situation), they fix themselves at the entrance 

 by the assistance of their dorsal appendages, the recurved hooks 



* Mr. Ivirby says eight : K. and S. Introd. vol. iv. p. 394^ note, and plate xvii. 

 f. 13. — Latreille, however, observes, that the larva of Ci. hybrida (not of Linne 

 as hereafter shown) has six eyes, two small and four large. Lair, et De Jean, Col. 

 i/e.s Europe, v. i. p. 30. 



