-OF THE- 



|kookhm Entomological .forictn. 



BROOKLYN, JAN. 1879. No. 9. 



RAISING COLEOPTSRA, 



BY F. G. SCHAUPP. 



I must acknowledge, the first impulse to study the early stag- 

 es of coleoptera was given to me by the fact, that so very 

 many specimens looking exceedingly alike are of different species; 

 and that for some time 1 hoped, by knowing the larvae it might 

 be possible, to define m re distinctly one species from another. 



Well, I see I was therein greatly mistaken, I ought to have known 

 that the germs and primary stages of allied species resemble each 

 other much more closely than do the imagines. I forgot the 

 school-lesson regarding the affinities of the embryoes of different 

 genera of the higher orders of the Animal Kingdom. 



Fritz Muller says : The more two adult species resemble each other in gen- 

 eral appearance and the closer, therefore, they stand related in the animal 

 Kingdom, the longer their embryonic forms remain identical and are dis- 

 tinguishable, if at all only by points of secondary importance. 



I have now raised Diccelus dilatatus, D. elongatus and D. jjolitus, I 

 have seen at Dr. Horn's three larvae of a Southern Dicselus (costa- 

 tus or splendidus ?) and there are less differences in those larvae 

 than are in the imagines of the same species. Mr. H. B. Wilson 

 in Cincinati has raised Diccelus pu/rpuratus, which also differs 

 chiefly by its color from D. dilatatus. 



Now as a rule it seems to be very difficult to obtain additional 

 points for the distinguishing the species by studying the larva?, 

 but no doubt there may be obtained some other knowledge of the 

 greatest interest. 



