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IX. An Account of Margarodes, a new Genus of Insects found 

 in the Neighbourhood of Ants' Nests. By the Rev. Lansdown 

 Guilding, B.A. F.L.S. 



Read December 4, 1827. 



I USED to imagine that nothing would give me so much pleasure 

 (excepting the discovery of a recent Belemnite), as an oppor- 

 tunity of investigating those curious and minute bodies which 

 have been so often sent to Europe in collections of shells, under 

 the name of ground pearl ; and by accident I have at last been 

 gratified in this respect. 



The only person who has lately noticed them is Dr. Nugent, 

 a learned geologist resident in Antigua. In the second part of 

 the fifth volume of the Transactions of the Geological Society of 

 London, page 463, he informs us, that the ground pearl (erro- 

 neously supposed to be fossil) occurs in the marl of that island, 

 and " is found in prodigious quantity in the furrows of the land 

 when newly turned up." Dr. Nugent appears, however, to have 

 suspected its real nature, for he says, (page 473,) " that though it 

 be derived exclusively from the marl, it may possibly be in some 

 unaccountable manner the production of some recent insect on 

 the surface. The ground pearl generally has an opening as if the 

 larva had escaped ; but in a few cases I have found them without 

 opening, containing a minute portion of mucous matter : the 

 negroes then call them live ground pearl. It is singular that 

 turkeys and other poultry devour these ground pearls ; and their 



Q 2 death 



