142 STATES OF INSECTS. 



i 



the last ventral segment. This seems characteristic of 

 the genus a . From the underside of the body of the 

 common meal-worm ( Tenebrio Molitor), at the junction 

 of the two last segments, when the animal walks, there 

 issues a fleshy part, furnished below with two rather hard, 

 long, and moveable pediform pieces, which the animal 

 uses in walking b . In the larva of another beetle, whose 

 ravages have been before noticed, under the name of the 

 cadelle c ( Trogosita mauritanica\ a pair of prolegs are 

 said to be found under the anal segment ; and in that of 

 the bloody-nose beetle {Timarcha tenebricosa\ that seg- 

 ment is bifid. That of the weevil of the common water- 

 hemlock (Lixus paraplecticiis F.) exhibits a singular ano- 

 maly: prolegs occupy the usual station of the true legs, 

 being attached to the three segments representing the 

 trunk d . This insect, however, does not appear to use 

 them in moving. A pair in each of the twelve segments 

 of the body are found in the grub of another weevil 

 (Hypera Rumicis Germ.), the nine last pair being the 

 shortest, which all assist the insect in walking e . But the 

 greatest number of prolegs is to be found in the Brazil 

 subcortical larva lately mentioned. Besides the six horny 

 legs of the trunk, this remarkable animal has four pro- 

 legs on each of the seven intermediate abdominal seg- 

 ments, and five on each side of the base of the last, 

 making the whole number of prolegs, if so they may 

 be called, amount to forty-four: a far greater number 

 than is to be found in any larva at present known. When 

 I wrote to you upon the motions of insects, I informed 



a De Geer iv. 157. b Ibid. v. 36. t. u.f. 11. 



c See above, Vol, I. p. 171. a De Geer v 228 



e Ibid. 233. 



