Parasitic Beetles. 409 



PAEASITIC BEETLES. 



BY E. C. EYE. 



Our Goleoptera, or "beetles, exhibit none of those pre-eminently 

 social or constructive instincts which have attracted the earliest 

 exercise of human observation to certain of the Hymenoptera 

 (bees, ants, etc.). It is true that in some cases their habits 

 are gregarious ; but their associations are for the most part 

 apparently devoid of purpose, beyond the procuring of food, 

 and are usually to be accounted for on the most easily intelli- 

 gible grounds, such as (in the case of the Phytophaga) the 

 occurrence of their food-plant in isolated spots, or the incapa- 

 bility of much motion attendant upon the structure of the larvas 

 of many species, which usually causes the produce of one batch 

 of eggs not to get dispersed nntil they arrive at the perfect 

 state. Their labours, also, which seem never (except in the 

 case of certain Necrophori, commonly known as " burying - 

 bettles") to be undertaken in concert, are limited in their 

 earlier stages to the construction of the most rudimentary 

 hybernacula, cells, galleries, or pits, or to the erection of protec- 

 tive cases (Glythra, Oryptocephalus) — in all of which operations 

 they exhibit less ability than the caterpillars of the more lowly 

 organized order Lepidoptera, and, in their perfect state, to the 

 exercise of the most ordinary instincts for the protection of 

 their future offspring ; such protection being in the majority of 

 instances confined to depositing the eggs in convenient and 

 proper situations, though some species, such as the above- 

 mentioned burying-beetles, certain of the RhynchopJwra (Bhyn- 

 cliites, Pissodes, Balaninus, etc.), and some of the indigenous 

 Coprophagous representatives of the sacred-beetle of the 

 Egyptians, exhibit considerable ingenuity, and are compelled 

 to use much physical force, in their preparations for the welfare 

 of their descendants. 



There remain, however, certain (as it were, morganatic) 

 alliances constantly contracted by beetles with other insects, 

 for which as yet no satisfactory explanation has been given ; 

 and it is to these that the present paper refers. There are 

 even some associations of Goleoptera with animals out of their 

 own class, such as that of Haploglossa nidicola (one of the 

 Aleocharidce, a large family of small Braclielytra, of which 

 section the common "Devil's coach-horse/'' Ocypus olens, is 

 the most gigantic and the best known exponent) with the 

 sand-martin, and Drilus fiavescens with certain species of Helix ; 

 but these and their like are readily capable of interpretation. 

 The former insect, which has received its specific name from 

 its nest-hunting propensities, is a parasite upon the bird for 



