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Show 490 INSECTA. CENAS, Lat. Oliv.-Meloe, Lin.-Lytta, Fab. These Insects seem to form the passage f1·om the Mylabres to the following Heteromera. Their antennce, the length of which is hardly greater than that of the thorax, are nearly of equal.thickn?ss through. out. The first joint is almost clavate and obcontcal; dtrectly after the following one, which is very short, the stem is geniculate, and forms a cylindrical or fusiform body, composed of short, crowded, and, with the exception of the last, which is conoid, t1·ansversal joints( I). In the other Heteromera of the same tribe, the antennre are always composed of eleven very distinct joints, almost of equal thickness throughout, or smallet· near the extremity, and frequently much longer than the head and thorax. They are irregular in several males. MELoE, Lin. Fab. In Meloe properly so called, the antenna:: are composed of short and rounded joints, the intermediate of which are the largest, and sometimes so disposed, that these organs present in this point, in several males, an emargination or crescent. The wings are wanting, and the elytra, oval or triangu]ar, with a portion of the inner margin crossing each other, only partially cover the abdomen, particularly in the females, where it is extremely voluminous. According to M. Leon Dufour, the crop of these Insects may be considered as a true gizzard, being furnished internally with callous, and as it were anastomosing plicce, and separated from the chylific ventricle or stomach, by a valve formed of four principal pieces, each of which results from two hollow cylinders placed back to back, and tridentated posteriorly. The stomach is formed of transverse, well marked, muscular fillets. They crawl along the ground, or upon low plants on the leaves of which they feed. A yellowish or reddish oleaginous liquid exudes from the articulations of their legs. In some districts of Spain, these Insects are used in place of Can· tharides, or are mixed with them. They are also employed by the Farriers. They were formerly regarded as a specific in hydropho· bia. I suspect-Mem. du Mus. d'Hist. Nat.-that our Meloes are the Buprestes of the ancients, Insects to which they attributed very (1) See Lat., Gene1•. Crust. et Insect., fl, p. 219, and J, x, 10; and the Encyc. Method., article CEnas. CO'LEOPTERA. 491 oxious qualities, and which, according to them, killed the Oxen that :cciclentally swallowed them while grazing. M. proscarabteus, L.; Leach, Lin. Trans., XI, vi, 6, 7. About an inch long; glossy-black, and densely punctured; sides of the head and thorax, and the antennce and legs, verging on violet; elytra finely rugose; middle of the antennce of t~e male dilated and forming a curve. . According to De Geer, the females deposit in the earth a great number of eggs in piles. The larvre have six feet and two filaments at the posterior extremity of their body; they attach themselves to Flies, whose juices they suck. M. Kirby thinks that it is an apterous or parasitical Insect, which he calls the Pediculus melitt;e, and I was formerly of his opinion. M. Walckenaer, in his '' Memoire pour servir a l'Histoire Naturelle des Abeilles Solitaires du genre Halicte," has brought forward all the facts relative to this subject of controversy. • I also have since spoken of it in the article Meloe of the N ouv. Diet. d'Hist. N aturelle. . The same Insect is the type of the genus Triongulin of M. Leon Dufour-Ann. des Sc. Nat., XIII, ix, B-already noticed in our expose of the Parasita. But the late researches of Messrs Lepeletier and Serville, who by isolating several females have obtained larvce from their eggs exactly similar to those described by De Geer, or Tl'iongulins, compel us to believe that they are those of Meloes. We know that sl:' veral Heteromera deposit their ova in the nests of various Bees. Is it not possible that this may be the fact with respect to the Meloes, and that their larvce Jive on these Bees, until the period at which these hymenoptera insure the e:x:istence of th~ir young ones, and that also of their enemies, which then establtsh themselves in the provisioned cells ? M. majalis, Oliv. Panz.; Leach, Ibid., I, 2. Th~ antenna:: regular and almost similar in both sexes; body bronze and cup1 ·eous-red mixed; head and thorax deeply punctured; e!ytra scabrous· cupreous and transverse bands on the abdomen. It had bee; considered as the M. majalis of Linnreus, a species which is found in Spain and Roussillon( 1 ). ~ . All the Heteromera of the following subgenera are furmshed with wings, and their elytra, as usual, extend longitudinally over the abdomen. or these subgenera we will first describe those in which the elytra (1) For the other species, see Leach, Monog., ct· t., t h a t 0 f Me.y er ' Fabt·iciu'l, . Olivier, &c.. The M. marginata, Fab., is a Galet·uc:\. |
