626 Mr. J. O. Westwood on the Paussida, 



Afzelius ? Without, however, venturing to question the correct- 

 ness of his observations, I beg to be permitted to throw out this 

 remark as a not unnatural cause of the appearance. Or may 

 not the appearance be accounted for (regard being had to the 

 globular and subpellucid structure of the clava,) precisely in the 

 same maimer as the light emitted by the shining moss mentioned 

 in Loudon's Magazine of Natural History, No. xv. p. 463. 

 (published since the preceding observations were written); where 

 Mr. Bowman in explaining its cause observes: "A person ac- 

 quainted with the laws of optics as exhibited in lenses, would, 

 on examining its (the moss's) structure of innumerable perfect 

 globules filled with a highly pellucid green fluid, have pro- 

 nounced, a priori, that they would condense the rays of light, 

 and appear luminous to an eye placed in the angle of incidence ; 

 and the fact, that it is always most brilliant either in the cave, or 

 in a room with only a single window, when the face is turned from 

 the light, illustrates the theory in a singular manner," 



Of the " differentiae sexuales" of the family I am only able to 

 state, that according to Afzelius, the female of P. spharocerus 

 differs chiefly from the male in having the labial palpi rather 

 narrower, the produced lobes of the mentum glaucous, the max- 

 illary palpi shorter, with the second joint narrower, the abdomen 

 longer, and the posterior femora slenderer. 



Of the habits of the species we know but little. Latreille, in 

 the Histoire Naturelle, states, " Les Pousses doivent vivre dans 

 les bois." — I need not occupy the valuable time of the Society 

 with repeating the account given by Afzelius of the habits of 

 P. spharocerus ; and shall therefore merely add, that Dr. Hors- 

 field has informed me that Mr. Arnold captured a species in 

 Java under precisely similar circumstances. 



M. Dupont of Paris has also informed me, (subsequent to the 

 commencement of the reading of this paper,) that the species 



which 



