230 



CICINDELIDjE. 



Fig. 102.— Larva of Nee 



collyris emarginata, De 

 (after Shelford). 



collections. The species, as a whole, are very scarce, and hardly 

 any of them can be called common. Mr. H. Leslie Andrewes has 

 recently informed me that he has only taken one specimen of the 

 genus on the Nilg.iri Hills in a year, 

 although several species occur in this 

 district. 



Very little is known of the life- 

 history of the group ; but the larva of 

 a species, which has been referred to 

 Collyris emarginata, Dej., has been 

 found making burrows in the fine twigs 

 of the coffee-shrub. It apparently 

 lives in these and preys on the aphides, 

 small ants, etc., which approach the 

 entrance of the burrow ; its habits 

 therefore are analogous to those of the 

 larvae of Cicindela, though they differ 

 widely in habitat. As so little is 

 known of the genus it may perhaps be 

 well to quote at length Mr.E. Shelford's 

 notes (Proc. Ent. Soc. Lend. 1905,. 

 pp. Ixxii-iii), in which he gives an account of habits of the larva : — 

 "In " Mededeelingen uit's Lands Plantentuin " xliv, 1905, 

 p. 113, Dr. J. C. Koningsberger of the Buitenzorg Zoological 

 Museum, published a brief notice of the larva of the Cicindelid 

 beetle, Collyris emarginata, Dej., burrowing the twigs of coffee- 

 shrubs. I noticed a preparation illustrating this remarkable 

 habit for a Cicindelid larva in the Museum at Buitenzorg, in 

 March of this year, but it was inside a locked case, and, as 

 Dr. Koningsberger was on leave in Europe, I was unable to make 

 a close examination of the larva and its burrow. In answer to a 

 request for material and information on the species, Dr. Konings- 

 berger has kindly sent me the specimens which I now have 

 pleasure in exhibiting to this Society. Dr. Koningsberger tells 

 me that the larva feeds on the ants and aphides that crawl over 

 the coffee twigs ; pupal ion takes place in the burrow ; oviposition 

 has not been witnessed, nor have any but full grown or nearly 

 full grown larva? been found, so that it is not known if the 

 burrow is enlarged to allow of the increase in size of its occupant, 

 or if it is originally made large enough to accommodate the larva 

 throughout its life. A figure of the larva is published in the 

 above-mentioned work (fig. 59), but it is evidently only a copy of 

 the figure of a Cicindelid larva in Packard's Guide to the Study 

 of Insects, and is quite inadequate.*' 



Since the above was written Mr. Shelford has published a full 

 description (with figures) of the larva, which is now assigned 

 without doubt to Collyris emarginata, Dej. (Trans. Ent. Soc. Lond. 

 1907, pp. 83-88, pi. iii) and has added various notes concerning 

 the peculiar genital armature of Collyris and its use. I had a 

 good deal of correspondence with Mr. Shelford, before his paper 



