LARVAL HABITS OF BLISTER-BEETLES. 293 



plants. The Black blister-beetle [Fpicauta pennsylvmiica De Geer) is 

 r.nother commou species, occiirring late ia the summer and in autumn 

 on various wild plants, as Solidago, Eupatorium, &c. 



All these beetles lay eggs in the ground in the vicinity of locust-eggs, 

 and their young, at first slender, with long legs, and active, eat into the 

 locust-egg mass (PI. lY, Fig. 1, 2). Here they remain until they have 

 devoured all or nearly all the locust-eggs, having changed, meanwhile, 

 into clumsy, short-legged grubs (PL IV, Fig. 5). Now forsaking the 

 remnants of the egg-mass, the grub penetrates the earth near by and 

 changes to the coarctate larva (PI. IV, Fig. 8), then to the pupa (PI. IV, 

 Fig. 9), and finally to the perfect beetle. 



In a paper published last November in the Transactions of the Acad- 

 emy of Science of Saint Louis (vol. iii, pp. 544-565), Mr. Eiley gave an 

 extended account of the transformations and habits of some of these blis- 

 ter-beetles, together with the natural history of certain other genera in 

 the same fiimily, in order to show, by way of comparison, the differences 

 in habit that are coupled with similarity qf development. Though 

 written more particularly for the entomologist, we shall reproduce the 

 larger part of the paper as appropriate in this connection, adding ^ few 

 facts, in brackets, ascertained since its publication ; and omitting the 

 detailed descriptions, which the scientific reader will find in the original 

 paper. 



In addition to the species mentioned in this paper we have, since its 

 publication, found the triungulin of the Black Blister-beetle (Epicauta 

 pennsylvanica) in the egg-mass o^spretuSj and have received, in the cara- 

 bidoid stage, the larva of some other species from Mr. S. H. Scudder, 

 taken ten years ago at Sudbury, Vt^, in the egg-clusters of another 

 locust {Chloealtis conspersa^ Harr.), a species which oviposits in dead wood 

 that is rather soft, and sufficiently moist, drilling therein a cylindrical 

 hole for the purpose, packing the eggs in the sawdust resulting, and cap- 

 ping the mass with a "black glutinous secretion, excessively hard, 

 smooth, and shiny." ^^ The fact that such eggs are also attacked by 

 blister-beetle larvae indicates how general the locust-egg-feeding habit 

 is in such larvae. 



Ox THE LARVAL CHARACTERS AND HABITS OF THE BLISTER-BEETLES BELONGEXG TO THE 



GENERA Macrohasis Leg. and Epicauta Fabr., with remarks on other species op 



THE family MeLOID^. 



[From the Transactions of the Ac. Sc. of St. Louis, vol. iii.] 



The larval habits of the European Cantharis of commerce, as also those of its con- 

 geners in our own country and in other parts of the world, have hitherto remained a 

 mystery, notwithstanding the frequency with which the beetles occur, their great 

 abundance at times, and their commercial value and interest. The same remark holds 

 true of the allied genera MacroSrtsis, Epicauta, and BenoMS, the species of which have the 

 same valuable vesicatory properties as Cantharis. Some of these species are very com- 



^ A full account of the nidification of this species will be found in Mr. Scudder's "Distribution of 

 Insects in New Hampshire." Final Eep. Geology of N. II., 1874, p. 372. 



