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THE BRITISH NATURALIST. [May 



from a minute larva to the perfect state. The larva is of a dirty 

 white, with a hard head and mandibles, formed rather for boring than 

 otherwise ; it will eat through paper with the greatest ease, and some- 

 times will even eat its way a chip box. It matures rapidly in the 

 summer, and on attaining full-fed stage, the skin is shuffled off to apex, 

 leaving the pupa exposed to view. The wing cases of the beetle are 

 quite discernible, being folded round the front, as in lepidopterous 

 pupae. The tail is quite flexible, and on touching or handling the 

 pupa, it wriggles about sharply. As the larval stage is of longer 

 duration in the winter, so also is the pupal stage, and some four or five 

 weeks elapse before the beetle makes its appearance. It is often found 

 in old dwelling-houses, and not unfrequently drops into cups and 

 basins in cupboards. It is said to be fond of moist sugar ; but figs 

 certainly possess attractions for the larvae, as I am well able to testify; 

 having once lost an entire brood through the larvae gorging themselves 

 to death on this pabulum. 



Two closely allied insects to the last are Mezium affine and Gibbium 

 scotias. The habits of these species are very similar to that of Niptus. 

 The larva of M. affine is of the usual wood-boring type, with hard 

 black mandibles, and covered with coarse hairs. The colour is of 

 dirty white, with opaque patches or ridges at each segment. Although 

 the beetle is to be obtained at all seasons of the year, yet in winter the 

 larva is some five or six months in attaining the full-fed state ; but 

 during the summer months I have reared beetles from ova in the short 

 space of five weeks. 



Respecting this species, Mr. Chitty (" Entomologist's Monthl}/ 

 Magazine," February, 1893) remarks that " I have recently come 

 across this insect in a granary in London, although only sparingly. 

 Many of the specimens were dead or broken, but in two (from their 

 colour they seem slightly immature) the elytra are covered all over 

 with hairs or bristles, which are closer and longer in the neighbourhood 

 of the scutellum. The existence of these bristles appears to have 

 escaped the attention of our English writers on coleoptera, probably 

 because the bristles wear off very easily, and, though occasionally 

 traces of them may be found by close examination even after they are 

 broken, they seem eventually to disappear without leaving an) 7 visible 

 scar or sign of their former existence." Mr. Chitty also states that 

 the descriptions contained in Stephens, Cox, and Fowler are from the 

 usual worn specimens, but that Mr. Gorham pointed out to him that 

 Mulsant (" Gibbicolles," page 393) describes M. affine as having the 

 elytra gibbous, with a hairy pad at the extreme base, of a brown or 

 pitchy red, smooth, spread over with scale-like upright bristles. So 

 far as I have been able to judge, the descriptions in British Handbooks 

 on Coleoptera are not always original, but are sometimes taken or 



