346 
COLEOPTERA. 
Cantharince. —The antennas longer, not curved, filiform. Can- 
tharis (Epicauta) contains a number of common species of which little 
is as yet known. C. violacea, MakL, is a 
small deep-blue form found in Western India. 
C. action, Cast., is the very common large 
blue species, found for a short time in the 
rains. C. tenuicollis , Pall. (? C. ruficollis, 
Pall., C. ornata , Cast.), is a green form 
with a slender reddish prothorax, which, 
with the dull brown C. rouxi, Cast., is 
destructive to cereals by devouring the 
stigma and anthers, no grain being formed. 
When the flowering of rice, millets or juar 
coincides with the emergence of these 
beetles, widespread loss may occur. C. 
hirticornis , Haag., is a black species with 
red head found abundantly in Assam in May 
where it feeds on Amaranthus and other vegetables. Illetica testacea , 
Fabr., is the more robust and densely chitinised red-brown species 
found in the rains. This has robust mandibles ; the shiny black thorax 
and lined elytra are hard and strong, giving the beetle more the appear¬ 
ance of a Cerambycid . 
Cissites Dehyi. —Green has observed that the eggs of this species 
are laid in the galleries of Xylocopa tenuiscapa , Westw., in Ceylon ; 
some of the larvae, he imagines, migrate on the bees to other colonies, 
(? via the flowers visited by the bees) and those that remain in the ori¬ 
ginal nest (and presumably attack the bee-larvae) pupate in side tunnels 
which they make off the main bee-tunnel (Ent. Mo. Mag., 1902, 232). 
Collecting. 
Collecting — The beetles are readily captured with the hand and 
require to be carefully dried. They lay eggs freely in captivity, the eggs 
hatch and, in captivity, nothing further can happen. The further elucida¬ 
tion of the life-history requires either the extremely careful observation 
of the larvae when batched in the open or prolonged investigation into 
the egg masses of Acridiids or the nests of Aculeate Hymenoptera in the 
hope of finding larvae. Any opportunity of doing either should be 
Fig. 220 .—CANTHa r is 
TENUICOLLIS. 
