284 Transactions.— Zoology. 
Art. XXXV.—On the Habits of Prionoplus reticularis, with Diagnoses of the 
Larva and Pupa. By Captain T. Broun. 
[Read before the Auckland Institute, 2nd June, 1879.] 
Tue subject I propose dealing with will be rendered more intelligible, and 
perhaps interesting, if I endeavour to convey something like a clear idea of 
what is meant by the terms employed by naturalists to designate the meta- 
morphoses of insects. This course will seem all the more advisable when it 
becomes known that I possess specimens of the larve and pups of other 
species of Coleoptera, which I hope to describe in subsequent papers. 
A beetle originates from a minute, soft, oblong or oval egg instinctively 
deposited by the parent in such a situation as will ensure a sufficient supply 
of wholesome food, the mode, time, and place of deposition being liable to 
considerable variation, and ordinarily succeeded by the death of the female, 
whose chief purpose in life would thus appear to have been accomplished. 
From the egg, in course of time—varying in extent according to species, 
climate, or other circumstances—emerges the larva, which frequently passes 
a period of three, or even five years, in solid wood before it attains its full 
growth and becomes a pupa. It is chiefly during this stage of an insect's 
existence, according to the mode of life of the members of the group or 
genus to which it belongs, that it commits so much havoc, or proves of 
great service to man. The larva—the state analogous to that of the cater- 
pillar of the butterfly or moth, and the maggot of the common fly—is usually 
a fleshy grub composed of thirteen segments, of which the first forms the 
head, the next three the thorax, and the remaining nine the abdomen of 
the perfect beetle ; but two or more of these latter ultimately coalesce in 
such a manner that not more than five or six can be discovered in many 
Coleoptera. It is provided with six short legs, which are attached to the 
second, third, and fourth, or thoracic segments. The head is furnished 
with a pair of rudimentary eyes; two antennge, commonly called feelers, 
situated between or near the mouth or eyes; two pairs of transverse or 
horizontally-moving jaws, of which the upper are termed mandibles and the 
lower maxille, the latter ordinarily armed with feelers, called palpi; a 
labrum or upper lip; and a labium or lower lip, having a pair of palpi. 
These organs, conjointly, close the aperture of the mouth when in repose. 
Respiration is effected, not through the mouth, but by means of a variable 
number of small, often almost imperceptible orifices referred to in descrip- 
tions as spiracles or stigma; these are placed near the sides of the body, 
and communicate with internal air-tubes. 
In due time the larva assumes the form known to us as the pupa, which 
corresponds with that of the chrysalis of Lepidopterous insects. In this state 
the beetle is generally soft, and quite harmless—that is, it does not take 
