but he did see its moulted skin
half-covering the pseudochrysalis which I have just mentioned. From
the sturdy mandibles and the legs armed with a powerful claw which he
observed on this moulted skin, Newport assumed that, instead of
remaining in the same Anthophora-cell, the larva, which is capable of
burrowing, passes from one cell to another in search of additional
nourishment. This suspicion seems to me to be well-founded, for the
size which the larva finally attains exceeds the proportions which the
small quantity of honey enclosed in a single cell would lead us to
expect.

Let us go back to the pseudochrysalis. It is, as in the Sitares, an
inert body, of a horny consistency, amber-coloured and divided into
thirteen segments, including the head. Its length is 20
millimetres.[1] It is slightly curved into an arc, highly convex on
the dorsal surface, almost flat on the ventral surface and edged with
a projecting fillet which marks the division between the two. The head
is only a sort of mask on which certain features are vaguely carved in
still relief, corresponding with the future parts of the head. On the
thoracic segments are three pairs of tubercles, corresponding with the
legs of the recent larva and the future insect. Lastly, there are nine
pairs of stigmata, one pair on the mesothorax and the eight following
pairs on the first eight segments of the abdomen. The last pair is
rather smaller than the rest, a peculiarity which we have already
noted in the larva which precedes the pseudochrysalis.

[Footnote 1: .787 inch.--_Translator's Note_.]

On comparing the pseudochrysalids of the Oil-beetles and Sitares, we
observe a most striking similarity between the two. The same structure
occurs in both, down to the smallest details. We find on either side
the same cephalic masks, the same tubercles occupying the place of the
legs, the same distribution and the same number of stigmata and,
lastly, the same colour, the same rigidity of the integuments. The
only points of difference are in the general appearance, which is not
the same in the two pseudochrysalids, and in the covering formed by
the cast skin of the late larva. In the Sitares, in fact, this cast
skin constitutes a closed bag, a pouch completely enveloping the
pseudochrysalis; in the Oil-beetles, on the contrary, it is split down
the back and pushed to the rear and, consequently, only half-covers
the pseudochrysalis.

The post-mortem examination of the o