354 A'carus Basten. 



latter, which is rudely drawn, may be identical with ours, 

 which is very prettily limned ; and on this presumption I have 

 taken the liberty of honouring the Dutchman and the mite 

 by making the one the patronymic of the other : nor do I 

 imagine that his manes will be offended with the compliment; 

 for, surely, a man is not less elevated above his peers, in trans- 

 migrating into an acarus, than in passing into a mouse, or a 

 maggot, or a snail, or even a star-fish ! 



The Icarus Basterz is not a microscopic species: it is 

 fully two or three times larger than the cheese-mite, equalling 

 in this respect an average-sized A N pion ; a comparison which 

 your entomological readers will well comprehend * ; and the 

 mite, moreover, has a general resemblance to the said little 

 beetle, but more depressed on the back. The following is as 

 good a description of it as I am able to make : — 



Body oval, narrowed in front, angulated at the shoulders, 

 naked, of a reddish-brown, or cinereous, or blackish colour, 

 with a light mesial line ; the head, front, margin, and legs 

 colourless ; a black spot (eye ?) on each side above the shoul- 

 der, and a less distinct one on the posterior part of the ros- 

 trum. Head rostrate, acute, porrect: at the base of the 

 beak there is a pair of large triarticulated palpi reaching be- 

 yond the apex of the beak, and armed with a strong movable 

 claw ; the basilar joint short, the second elongate : mouth 

 inferior, apparently without maxillae. Legs eight, gressorial, 

 two pairs directed forward and two backwards, longer than 

 the body, hispid, six -jointed, didactyle ; anterior pairs shorter 

 than the posterior, the first originating in the margin, ra- 

 ther stouter, but almost imperceptibly so, than the second, 

 whose origin is a little behind, and also lateral; there is a wide 

 interval between the second and third pairs, while the fourth 

 are again approximated to the third : the two basilar joints 

 short, third elongate, fourth small, fifth as long as the third, 

 and longer than the sixth; the claws strong, hooked, and sharp : 

 anus terminal. 



This acarus lives amongst corallines andConfervse, between 



[* In I. 160. are generic and specific characters and figures, all in detail 

 and from Curt. Brit. Ent., of the A v pion difformis ; and the remark, that 

 " The type of this genus is the Curculio frumentarius Linn., the corn 

 weevil." 



A s pionJidvipes. Wm. Gardiner, jun., Dundee, Forfarshire, sent to us, 

 under date of May 19. 1835, specimens, taken shortly previous, on .Mer- 

 curial perennis L., of what Mr. West wood afterwards identified as A v pion 

 flavipes, and of which he remarked, that it is usually found on clover, 

 the larvae feeding on the heads. Mr. Gardiner did not state that the indi- 

 viduals he took were eating of the Mercuridlis ; but one may suppose that 

 it is likely that they were.] 



