Note 381 — LETTER XXX.
Reading edition
May 27, 1822. This day, T. Allen, Esq. F.L.S. brought me in a phial a vast number of the little insect which Goedart, Frisch, and De Geer took for the larva of Meloe Proscarabæus, which he found on the leaves of Achillea Millefolium. These little animals were coursing each other with wonderful velocity over the sides of the phial. To assist them in their motions, they applied to the surface of the glass the end of their abdomen, using it, like many larvæ of Coleoptera, as a seventh leg. This circumstance excited a suspicion in the minds of both Mr. MacLeay sen., then visiting me, and myself, that after all they might be coleopterous larvæ. One, amongst other circumstances, however, seemed to militate strongly against this opinion; namely, that in this infinite number none appeared to differ in size.