288 NEW YORK STATE MUSEUM 



Part 51 

 AQUATIC CHRYSOMELIDAE 



AN'D A TABLE OF THE 



FAMILIES OF COLEOPTEROUS LARVAE 



BY ALEX. D. MACGILLIVEAY 



Beetles are among the most abundant of insects. They are- 

 easily collected and prepared for the cabinet and probably for 

 this reason are more extensively studied and collected than any 

 other order. Their larvae and pupae are usually soft bodied 

 and inconspicuous and in most cases are very difficult to rear- 

 to maturity. It is probably due to these latter conditions that 

 the transformations of only a very small proportion of our 

 beetles are kno-w'n. The habits of their larvae are more varied 

 than those of the other orders; some are predaceous, feeding 

 on the larvae of other insects; some are scavengers, feeding on 

 decaying plants and animals, dried skins, hair and bones; some 

 are herbivorous, feeding on the roots, stems and leaves of 

 plants, mining their leaves, living -within their seeds, forming 

 galls on their leaves, or tunneling through the trunks of trees; 

 some feed on and destroy many kinds of prepared food products, 

 while others live commensally within the nests of insects. 

 Though the majority of the species are terrestrial, yet many 

 are found on the surface and within the water of ponds and 

 streams. 



There have not been any extended investigations dealing with 

 the transformations of American Ooleoptera. The work done 

 thus far consists mainly of scattered descripitions by govern- 

 ment and state entomologists in bulletins, reports and ento- 

 mological magazines, and they have dealt in great part only 

 with those species that are of economic importance in some 

 phase of their life history. 



The most important publications for the student of the life 



histories of American Ooleoptera are the following: 



Beutenmiiller, William. Bibliographical Catalogue of the Described 

 Transformations of North American Ooleoptera. N. Y. Micro. Soc. Jour. 

 VII, 1891. 7:1-52. 



This paper gives all the references to descriptions and figures of 

 American beetle larvae and pupae previous to this date and should be in 

 the hands of every American student of this subject. 



'Not edited according to the rules of the University. 



