
498 THE INSECT WORLD. 
with eggs. They are generally observed in spring. In Germany 
they give them the name of Ma:zurm (Mayworm). ‘Their succu- 
lence would expose them without doubt to the voracity of birds, 
and of insect-eating Mammifers, if they had not the power of 
exuding at will, in the moment of danger, from all their articula- 
. tions, an unctuous humour, of a reddish-yellow colour, the 
odour, and probably also the caustic properties, of which repel the 
aggressor. The females lay their eggs underground, and out of 
these come forth larvee of a strange shape. Swallowed by cattle, 
they cause them to swell and die. It is for this reason that 
Latreille has given it as his opinion that these insects are the 
Buprestis of the ancients, of which the law of Cornelius speaks, 
‘‘Lex Cornelia de sicariis et veneficis.” But the name of 
Buprestis was applied by Linnzeus to a genus of which we shall 
treat farther on, and it has been generally adopted by naturalists. 
The commonest among the Meloés is the Meloé proscarabeus, 
which is to be found in abundance, in the month of April, in the 
meadows near the bridge of Ivry, in the environs of Paris. The 
metamorphoses of the insects of this family had remained for a 
long time surrounded with an impenetrable veil of mystery, but the 
researches of Newport in England, and of M. Fabre (of Avignon) 
in France, have made known, in our days, phases, extremely 
curious, under which are accomplished the metamorphoses of 
the Sitaris humeralis, a species which belongs to the same family.* 
These observations, of which we are about to give a rapid sum- 
mary, will probably help towards unravelling the first states of 
Cantharis. 
The Sitaris humeralis (Fig. 543) takes no nourishment when 
arrived at the perfect state. When the female has been im- 
pregnated, she lays at the entrance of the nest of a solitary 
bee from two to three thousand very small whitish eggs, stuck 
together in shapeless masses. A month afterwards there come 
out of these eggs very small larve, of a shiny dark green, 
hard skinned, armed with strong jaws, and long legs and antenne 
(Fig. 544). These are the first larve. They remain motion- 
less and without taking food till the following spring. At 
this period are hatched the male bees, which precede the appear- 
* Annales des Sciences Naturelles, 1857, 4° serie, tome vyii., p. 300. 

