a Family of Coleopterous Insects. 627 



which I have subsequently introduced from his splendid collec- 

 tion under the name of P. excavatus, was observed by his corre- 

 spondent at Senegal, by whom the insect was captured, to make 

 several repeated discharges of smoke, accompanied by a slight 

 noise similar to that produced by the Bombadier Beetle (Brachi- 

 nus), whence M. Dupont named it P. crepitans. I cannot, how- 

 ever, help imagining that some mistake must have arisen with 

 respect to this peculiarity. Afzelius, who captured several spe- 

 cimens of the genus, has recorded nothing of the kind, and it may 

 reasonably be doubted whether the internal structure of M. Du- 

 pont's insect would so far differ from that of the other species as 

 to enable it to produce these repeated discharges. Having con- 

 sulted M. Latreille upon the subject, whose opinion corre- 

 sponds with my own, I have not hesitated to propose another 

 specific name for the insect in question in lieu of that proposed 

 by the possessor of the specimen, which, but for the circum- 

 stances stated above, I should with pleasure have adopted. 



The following observations comprise the details most worthy 

 of notice regarding the history of this singular genus, upon 

 which but few authors have treated. The genus was established 

 under the name Paussus in the last entomological dissertation 

 of the Academy of Upsal, under the presidency of Linnaeus, the 

 title whereof is " Bigae Insectorum quas Praeside DD. Car. v. 

 Linne proposuit Andreas Dahl, Westragothus, Upsaliae 1775." 

 The only species described and figured was P. microcephalus, 

 which Linnaeus had received in a collection of North American 

 and African insects from Dr. Fothergill of London. In 1781, 

 Thunberg described in the Swedish Transactions two new spe- 

 cies of the genus discovered by himself in South Africa in the 

 year 1772 (and which he had previously considered as forming 

 a new genus), under the names Pausus lineatus and P. ruber, the 

 former of which alone was indifferently figured. Fabricius in 



the 



