25S Dr. Afzelius'j Obfcrvations on the Genus Paufus. 



It is not very uncommon in our days to fee ater and niger y piceus 

 nnd fujcus, ufed promifcuoufly : but it was not ib originally with 

 Linne; for, by ater he meant a colour of the blacker! kind ; by niger y 

 another of black and brown mixed together ; and by piceus* ftill ano- 

 ther of a lighter cart, or with a greater portion of brown. As to 

 fufcus, it was a dark colour, compofed of a mixture of black, brown, 

 and cinereous. Having once afked him the difference between ater 

 and niger y I received this explanation from himfelf. It muft there- 

 fore be genuine; and if we apply it to the prefent cafe, we (hall find 

 it agree admirably well, for the colour of P. micracephalus is a dark, 

 brown, but underneath and on the forepart bordering on blackifh ; 

 and of courfe Thunberg has approached very near the truth in 

 calling it niger, though I would rather give it the name of piceus. 



Fabricius, in pointing out the fpecific difference of this infe£t, and 

 fpcaking particularly of its antenna, fays that their clava is irre- 

 gularis. This word not being otherwife defined, it muft here be 

 taken in the fenfe in which it is commonly ufed, and then it conveys 

 the idea of the clava being of a fhape either not always uniform, or 

 deviating from the ordinary rules of nature. But neither is the cafe, 

 for all that I have feen have been quite alike, and an oblong fpheroid 

 is not a very uncommon form to be met with in nature ; P. fpharo- 

 cents, both the Paufi of Thunberg, and Cerocoma ruficollis of Fabricius* 

 having, befides fomething fimilar to it, the upper joint of their an- 

 tennae differently fhaped from thofe of other infecls. 



After thefe details of the hiftory of P. microcephalus r I fliall now 

 ftate the chief differences between it and V.fpbterocerus. 



It is of the fame length, but fomewhat broader acrofs the elytra, 

 and of a much darker colour, being alfo very little lhining. 



The 



