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The receipt, recently, of several requests for information and assistance in rearing blister beetles (Meloidae) has prompted me to prepare the following account of the rearing method used in my laboratory. In order to make the account as useful as possible to new students. I have included a considerable amount of information on meloid bionomics. Larval phases are designated as triungulin (TI, first grub (FG), coarctate (C), and second grub (SG). Where necessary, instar is indicated by a numerical subscript. The pupa and adult are symbolized by P and A, respectively. I assume that the reader has some knowledge of the taxonomy of the Meloidae.
Forty-three available family-group names (and three unavailable names) in Meloidae are listed as a basis for establishing nomenclatural priority. Available genus-group names, 256 in number, are listed alphabetically with indication of the type species of each; this is followed by a list of 23 names proposed or used at the genus-group level that are unavailable in zoological nomenclature. Finally, a classification of the family Meloidae to the subgeneric level is presented in which names at the family-group and genus-group levels are treated in a manner consistent with the provisions of the International Code of Zoological Nomenclature. This classification recognizes three subfamilies (Eleticinae, Meloinae, and Horiinae), 10 tribes, 15 subtribes, 116 genera, and 66 subgenera. The subtribes Pyrotina and Lydina (properly Alosimina), of the tribe Cerocomini, are combined with the subtribe Lyttina. The tribe Stenoderini, of the subfamily Horiinae, is defined to include Stenodera Eschscholtz. Epispasta Selander is transferred from Cerocomini to Meloini. Recently proposed changes in classification at the genus-group level are incorporated. In addition, Gynapteryx Fairmaire and Germain is placed in the synonymy of Picnoseus Solier; Afromeloe Schmidt and Lampromeloe Reitter, formerly treated as subgenera of Meloe Linnaeus, are elevated to full generic rank; and Zonitolytta Pic is reduced to subgeneric rank in Nemognathu Illiger.
Information on the taxonomy, anatomy, and bionomics of the species of Psalydolytta Peringuey is presented and summarized. Psalydolytta testaceoapicalis Pic, described from Guinea, is placed in the synonymy of P. cineracea (Maklin) (new synonymy). The genus has a disjunct Ethiopian-Indian distribution (42 species in Africa, 10 in India). Adults appear toward the end of the rainy season, are generally nocturnal, and feed largely on flowers and developing grains of wild and cultivated grasses. Adults attracted to lights are sometimes a nuisance because of their ability to produce blisters on human skin. The larva of the Indian P. rouxi (Castelnau) has been recorded as a predator of the eggs of the pyrgomorphid grasshopper Colemania sphenarioides Bolivar and that of the African P. fusca (Olivier) as a predator of the eggs of the acridid grasshopper Cataloipus fuscocoeruleipes (Sjostedt).