350 ME. G. LEWIS ON JAPANESE LANGUEIIDJi). 



the larva transforms to a pupa in the lower part of the burrow 

 The pupa is about 6 millim. long, slender, with a large head, 

 and is yellow in colour. The adult beetles begin to issue in 

 August, and are continually making their exits until late in 

 October. 



" There is probably but one brood in a season, and the insect 

 hybernates in the beetle state. An examination of many stalks 

 during the winter failed to show the insect in any stage of 

 growth." 



figures are given of the egg, larva, pupa, imago, and the 

 stem of the clover with the larva feeding in it. 



It seems obvious from this notice that the mode of life during 

 the larval state connects the family rather with the Chrysomelidse 

 than with either the Erotylidse or the Endomychidse ; and I must 

 confess that my own observations of their general habits in Eastern 

 Asia, where I almost daily saw examples of the commoner kinds, 

 led me to place them near the Endomychidse. Prof. Comstock's 

 remark that " the larva usually burrows doionwards, often extend- 

 ing its work for a distance of from six to eight inches below the 

 point of entrance," shows it to be an internal feeder on living 

 vegetation. If it ascended the stem above the orifice, it might 

 be open to suggestion that a fungoid growth (on which Langu- 

 riidse have been supposed to feed) had commenced in the dead 

 clover-stem; but this is clearly not the case. Prof. Comstock's 

 observations also show us the reason of the parallel and unexcep- 

 tional elongate form of the Languriidse, in so far as we see this 

 form is suited to the position of the imago before its egress from 

 the hollow stem in which it has attained to maturity. 



I think we must, after reading Prof. Comstock's paper, look at 

 the Languriidse as a, comparatively speaking, recent type of 

 Coleoptera, nearer to the Chrysomelidge than to the Erotylidse, 

 which has greatly multiplied its species, but which has, as yet, 

 owing to simple and constant habits, been evolved in the direc- 

 tion of growth of the longitudinal axis only. 



In the large families of Coleoptera, e. g. Carabidee, we have 

 convex and ovate forms, as Omophron, elongate figures in Casnonia 

 and Scarites, and flat mouldings in Morio. Histeridce have shapes 

 corresponding to the above in Saprinus, Trypooicsus, and Dimalus 

 or Hololepta. Again, in the Chrysomelidse, Giastrolina is a 

 flat species which hybernates under Flanera-havk, and convex 

 and linear species of the group are familiar to all. It is only 



