Among a few of the beetles or Coleoptera, and also in the neuropterous genus Mantispa, are found life-histories in which the earliest instar is campodeiform and the succeeding larval stages eruciform.
Most significant is the precedence of the eruciform by the campodeiform type.
Larva campodeiform, usually feeding by suction (exceptionally hypermetamorphic with subsequent eruciform instars).
Larvae eruciform without thoracic legs, or vermiform without head-capsule.
The antiquity of the Coleoptera is further shown by the great diversity of larval form and habit that has arisen in the order, and the proof afforded by the hypermetamorphic beetles that the campodeiform preceded the eruciform larva has already been emphasized.