178 HANBURT ON TWO INSECT-PRODUCTS FROM PERSIA. 



tegulae pale testaceous ; the legs pale ferruginous, with the claws of 

 the tarsi darker. Abdomen : the base of the segments depressed and 

 very delicately and closely punctured, subopake; the apical half highly 

 polished and shining ; beneath obscurely rufo-piceous. 

 Hab. Aru. 



Gen. Teemex, Jurine. 



1. Tremex iNSiGNis. T. nigro-purpureus ; abdominis fasciis basalibus 

 albis ; alis nigris cupreo nitentibus. 



Female. Length 11 lines. Obscure steel-blue, with shades of green, 

 purple, and violet ; the head and thorax punctured ; the prothorax 

 with an oblique smooth shining space on each side ; the wings very 

 dark brown, with a brilliant coppery effulgence. The base of the 

 abdomen opake, velvety, purple-black ; the first segment with a trans- 

 verse cream-coloured fascia in the middle, the second very slightly 

 whitish at its base ; the rest of the abdomen is highly polished, and 

 has a scattered, short, black pubescence. 



Hab. Aru. 



Note on Two Insect-products from Persia. 

 By Daniel Hanbtjrt, Esq., P.L.S. 



[Read December 16th, 1858.] 



In the month of June last, my friend Professor Gruibourt, of 

 Paris, laid before the Academic des Sciences* some account of a 

 remarkable substance called Trehala, the cocoon of a Curcu- 

 lionidous insect found in Persia, where, as well as in other parts 

 of the East, it enjoys some celebrity as the basis of a mucilaginous 

 drink administered to the sick. 



Specimens of this substance, as well as of another insect-pro- 

 duct of Persia, together with the insects themselyes, were pre- 

 sented a few years ago to the British Museum by "W. K. Loftus, 

 Esq., who obtained them while engaged by the British Grovern- 

 ment on the question of the Turco-Persian boundaries. 



The precise determination of the species of these insects being 

 a matter of doubt, they have at my request been lately examined 

 by M. Jekel, of Paris, an entomologist with whom the family of 

 Curculionidcd has long been an especial study. One of these 

 insects M. Jekel has identified with a species of wide distribu- 

 tion ; the other proving undescribed, he has drawn up a descrip- 

 tion of it, which, accompanied by a figure, I have the honour to 

 lay before the Linnean Society. To this, I venture to add a few 

 observations upon the productions to which I have alluded. 



* Coitiptes Rendus, 21 Juin, 1858, p. 1213. 



